Review - A Midsummer Night's Dream

Comedies of errors are a dying breed. The closest you can come to one now is semi-entertaining farces like The Out-of-Towners, which make you feel more embarrassed than confused, as a comedy of errors should make you feel.

William Shakespeare was the master of the comedy of errors. He could write a plot so intertwined and so confusing that you weren't sure what happened, let alone what would happen next. With the shortage of good comedy writers these days (most of them are working for dead-end sitcoms, poor saps), naturally someone was bound to turn to the Bard for inspiration.

The result of this is A Midsummer Night's Dream, the 7th remake of Shakespeare's best comedy of errors. The film stars Michelle Pfeiffer as Titania the fairy queen, Kevin Kline as Bottom the weaver (also known as Pyramus), and Stanley Tucci as Puck, the michevious little fairy who gets the error ball rolling.

The main story is played out deftly, in which Hermia (Anna Friel) has two men, Demetrius (Christian Bale) and Lysander (Dominic West), fighting for her affections. Hermia truly loves Lysander, but is to marry Demetrius. And if that's not enough for you, there's also Helena (Calista Flockhart), who is madly in love with Demetrius.

Although the main plot is wonderfully done, the real joy of Midsummer is watching the subplot unfold, where Titania is bewitched by Oberon the fairy king (Rupert Everett) to fall in love with the first thing she sees. Puck, little bugger, makes sure that the thing is hideous, and does so by turning Bottom into a donkey. The fairy sequences' special effects are beautiful, and the actors are a delight.

The film does have its faults. For example, the quartet in the main plot do a little mud-wrestling that seems way ahead of its time (which, by the way, has been updated to the 19th century, apparently so they could endorse the use of bicycles). And in the play, "Pyramus and Thisby," the prologue is mysteriously missing, although the line, "So please your grace, the prologue is addressed," remains uncut. All in all, however, this return to the fairy tales of yore can only bring good fortune upon the dying comedies of errors.

Grade - B+

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