| | | Love makes fools of us all.
Features: DVD
A stellar cast, headed by Michelle Pfeiffer and Kevin Kline, bring Shakespeare's romantic comedy to life. When two pairs of star-crossed lovers, a fending pair of supernatural sprites and a love potion gone awry all come together in an enchanted moonlit forest, the result is a delightful mix of merriment and magic.
"Calista Flockhart is a delight and Michelle Pfeiffer is gorgeous." CBS Morning News
"Kevin Kline will make the audience giddy. " The New Yorker
Editor's Note
Michael Hoffman's film adaptation of Shakespeare's magical comedy of a love-tangled quadrangle shimmers with sumptuous cinematography and a truly stellar cast that includes Kevin Kline, Michelle Pfeiffer, Stanley Tucci, Rupert Everett, Calista Flockhart, and Sam Rockwell. Relocated from Athens to an Italian villa, the film follows the romantic misadventures of four would-be lovers; at the beginning of the film Helena loves Demetrius who loves Hermia who loves Lysander, but all of that undergoes a change when the four young people chase each other into the woods and wander into the domain of Oberon and Titania (King and Queen of the Fairies), and the mischievous magic of Puck who possesses a flower that causes people to fall in love with the first person they encounter. Into the hilarity and confusion stumble a hapless band of laborers rehearsing a play for the Duke's wedding. One of the band, Nick Bottom, a humble weaver, is given the head of donkey and then, through the power of the flower, wins the love of Titania herself. After a dizzying whirl of magic, mayhem, and a million minor follies of the heart, everything is sorted out and everyone finds, at last, their match.
| Features | Audio: English 5.1 Surround | | Interactive Menus | | Original Theatrical Trailer | | Scene Selection | | Subtitles: English, Spanish | | Widescreen Version |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Foxvideo |
| Release Date: 4/15/2003 |
| Running Time: 120 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 1999 | | Catalog ID: 4112308 | | UPC: 00086162123085 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Widescreen 2.35:1 |
| Cast & Crew
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| | Professional Reviews | Sight and Sound
"...Endearing....[Flockhart's] verse delivery is impeccable..." 10/??/1999 p.51-2Total Film
"...A great movie and a talented cast..." 10/01/1999 p.93 Box Office
"...The fairy kingdom looks enchantingly like a Victorian illustration come to life..." 07/01/1999 p.91 USA Today
"...Eye-pleasing....The mock tragedy of doomed sweethearts Pyramus and Thisbe is done in fine burlesque style with a surprisingly plaintive end..." 05/14/1999 p.8E Apollo Leisure Guide 8 of 10
Recreating a four hundred-year-old comedy full of language almost as foreign to today's audiences as Esperanto takes a particular brand of courage. Director Michael Hoffman and his troupe of rough mechanicals have both the courage and the talent to pull off a sweet springtime surprise in this adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Hoffman has made few changes to Shakespeare's comedy, other than snipping back a few of the wordier speeches and moving the play from renaissance Athens to turn of the 19th century Tuscany, which allows for the inclusion of some emotionally enriching operatic arias... The play's action mounts steadily, as the tragic potential is agilely turned into comic chaos when the young lovers enter the enchanted forest. While the pace lags a bit in the middle, the story quickly finds its feet in the concluding play-within-a-play. While the village sets are delightfully authentic, the forest is clearly a piece of set design that is intended to look theatrical... Distinguishing himself in a strong cast is the reliably great Kevin Kline, who gives us a dreamer as well as an ass in his performance of Bottom. Calista Flockhart is surprisingly effective, serving up a deliciously frenetic comic performance, as is Rupert Everett, whose Oberon is a king of the fairies with an impetuousness tinged with gloom. - Dan Jardine
San Francisco Chronicle 9 of 10
Purists will quibble, but William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream is a playful, sexy piece of work -- just what the Bard might have conjured up for a movie adaptation of his beloved spring-fever comedy. The film is over the top -- and willfully so. In director-writer Michael Hoffman's version...even the visual lushness is larkish, a bit zany. From its setting in the romantic, glowing Tuscan countryside that shifts to the grand dream sequence in a magic forest of deep shadows and strange goings-on, this film is a visual tour de force to brighten eyes. And the delicious cast weaves its own spell. - Peter Stack
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