The Merchant of Venice
Dir: Michael Radford
2004
**
I've got a bit of a love/hate thing going on when it comes to the work of Shakespeare. The Merchant of Venice is one of his that is in the middle for me because I don't like the story but mainly because it comes under the 'Women pretending to be men' category which is very much a pet hate of mine but then I really like the character of Shylock. I have always thought the story should end with the court scene and watching it on film only confirms this for me. I believe it's an honest adaptation. It looks good most of the time although I spotted a couple of unforgivable fake moustaches (and I don't mean on the women). The acting is also very hit and miss. Jeremy Irons is classically trained and he knows how to do Shakespeare justice, as does John Sessions and a few others who are well practiced in the Bards work. Al Pacino's performance is very good too, although I wasn't so sure at first. He does end up being the only good reason to watch though as others stink up Shakespeare to high heaven. Kris Marshall makes it look like a pantomime (look what happened to his much hyped future career). Joseph Fiennes was obviously cast as a safety net after the success of Shakespeare in Love but his performance was about as safe as an asbestos gum shield. I can only imagine Lynn Collins was cast because Gwyneth Paltrow was busy. Not my favourite Shakespeare play and not the very best adaptation of his work.