It's the perfect cinematic vehicle -- or at least it would have been, if Radford's adaptation weren't so unremittingly cloddish.
Comment
07/04/08
William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice (2004)
70 %
Reviews Counted: 115 Fresh: 80 Rotten:35 Average Rating: 6.6/10
Consensus:
A respectable if uneven take on the Bard's The Merchant of Venice.
Runtime: 2 hrs 11 mins
Synopsis: One of the immortal bard's most frequently performed works gets a first-rate cinematic treatment here, via director Michael Radford (IL POSTINO). Al Pacino is virtually unrecognizable as Shylock, bringing an old-world gravitas to the role and clearly inspiring the rest of the cast to... [More]
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons, Joseph Fiennes, Zuleikha Robinson, Charlie Cox
Director: Michael Radford
Screenwriter: Michael Radford
Producer: Cary Brokaw, Jason Piette, Michael Lionello Cowen, Barry Navidi
Composer: Jocelyn Pook
Screenwriter: Michael Radford
Producer: Cary Brokaw, Jason Piette, Michael Lionello Cowen, Barry Navidi
Composer: Jocelyn Pook
Reviews
Top Critic
This is Al Pacino's show, and thankfully his Shylock is absorbing enough to carry the day.
06/24/06
Top Critic
It veers from real conviction to panto, but Radford is clearly committed to the play's relevance, while Pacino, the Shakespeare addict, is a joy to watch.
04/01/06
Top Critic
Radford's gloomy film is a long and slightly draining haul, but the intensity of Al Pacino's central performance justifies the effort required.
02/15/05
Top Critic
Pacino's performance is worth the ticket price alone, but don't expect a film that'll encourage a Shakespearian revival; it's far too uninspired for that.
12/05/04
A well made, beautifully acted film that remains gripping throughout its lengthy running time.
12/04/04
Radford that draws out the cultural context of the period and the emotions in the story.
10/19/04
Pacino is at least dynamic, something harder to say about the women in the cast.
07/04/08
Top Critic
Pacino shapes the role masterfully. He not only rises to the role's extremes of villainous melodrama, he fills them, rendering them both theatrical and believable
10/11/06
It tilts so far in one direction that the comic elements seem to come from another, lesser film.
09/26/05
With a running time of over two hours, I was ready to pay with a pound of my flesh for The Merchant of Venice to close shop already.
05/09/05
Merchant of Venice is such a blatantly anti-Semitic work that a modernization seems imprudent.
04/08/05
Shakespeare needs no special effects or short-sighted novelties. Michael Radford's straightforward telling of The Merchant of Venice does the great play justice.
03/24/05
Radford preserves the mechanics of the plot, but also offers us heroes who are as flawed as the nominal villain, if not more so
03/24/05
Radford’s adaptation admirably captures the inherent and troubling contradictions of the play, and turns them into great, thought-provoking drama.
03/17/05
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• William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice at AskMen
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