After her husband's death, the Duchess of Milan (Helen Mirren) is set adrift on the open sea by her treacherous brother (Chris Cooper) along with her daughter so that he can usurp her title. Cast ashore on an island off the coast of Africa, she raises her daughter (Felicity Jones) and perfects her powers of black magic and sorcery which enables her to get her revenge when a ship harboring her enemies passes by the island. William Shakespeare's play (whose plot was the basis for the 1950s sci-fi classic
FORBIDDEN PLANET) receives a visually dazzling re-imagining by director Julie Taymor who did similar duties on his
TITUS ANDRONICUS in 1999. Not only in the gender reversal (in Shakespeare, Mirren's Prospera is Prospero, a male sorcerer) but in the somewhat daring casting of the black actor Djimon Hounsou (in the film's best performance) as Caliban. The first rate cast includes David Strathairn, Alfred Molina, Russell Brand, Tom Conti, Reeve Carney and Ben Whishaw as Ariel, the sprite. The one sour note is Elliot Goldenthal's busy score.
No comments:
Post a Comment