The presence of old lags Martin Sheen and John Heard just beggars belief. What were they thinking?
O (2001)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:123
Fresh:78
Rotten:45
Average Rating:6/10
Consensus: Though well-intentioned and serious in its exploration of teen violence, O is an uneven experiment that doesn't quite succeed.
Runtime: 1 hr 34 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: A contemporary retelling of Othello, Shakespeare's timeless tale of treachery and jealousy, O will perhaps introduce a new audience to the genius of William Shakespeare and some of his most... A contemporary retelling of Othello, Shakespeare's timeless tale of treachery and jealousy, O will perhaps introduce a new audience to the genius of William Shakespeare and some of his most intriguing and tragic characters. Set in an elite private school located deep in the American South, Mekhi Phifer portrays NBA hopeful Odin James, the only black student at the school. Odin not only enjoys widespread popularity with the students, he is dating Desi Brable (Julia Stiles), the beautiful daughter of the Dean of Palmetto Grove Academy (John Heard). Odin's best friend, Hugo Goulding (Josh Hartnett), drawn closely from Shakespeare's nefarious Iago, is a starting forward on the basketball team, and the son of Coach Duke Goulding (Martin Sheen). Hugo has been asked by his father to look out for Odin because of the particular pressures facing him at Palmetto Grove. Yet Hugo is bitterly envious of Odin and the attention Odin receives from the coach and everyone else at school. An introspective and somewhat mysterious young man, Hugo seeks to manipulate those around him to his own private ends. Placed by his own father in the role of Odin confidante, Hugo is, in reality, seeking to destroy the very person he pretends to befriend. As the basketball season comes to a dramatic finish, conflict among the six friends escalates into irrevocable tragedy when Hugo executes a plan prompting Odin to throw away all that he cares about most- the woman he loves, his bright future, his very soul. -- © 2001 Lions Gate Films [More]
Starring: Josh Hartnett, Mekhi Phifer, Julia Stiles, John Heard
Starring: Josh Hartnett, Mekhi Phifer, Julia Stiles, John Heard, Eldon Henson, Andrew Keegan, Rain Phoenix, Martin Sheen, A.J. Johnson, Harold Shumate
Director: Tim Blake Nelson
Director: Tim Blake Nelson
Screenwriter: Brad Kaaya
Producer: Daniel Fried, Eric Gitter
Composer: Jeff Danna
Studio: Lions Gate Films
Reviews for O
It's highly enjoyable and well acted, with the Iago figure better motivated than in the original play, no single line of which has been retained except for the odd echo.
Hartnett never allows him to become a hissable villain, keeping Hugo shy of our sympathies, yet his every move is utterly believable.
Credit, none the less, to the film-makers' game, unpatronising approach, and to Phifer and Stiles as compelling innocents.
This is definitely worth watching, thanks to the performances and Nelson's direction.
Perhaps overaware of its solemn literary inheritance, it tiptoes around sex and race, and, in turning Shakespeare's grown-ups into Dawson's Creek teens, jettisons much of the original's grandeur.
The camera is subtle but insistent in how it views characters with darkness, pity and suspicion.
This arty melodrama is not likely to make teenage America get down with Shakespeare.
This transferral of the tragedy of the Moor to a contempo American high school is something that never should have gone further than a class assignment to see if it could be made to work.
Helmer Nelson has fashioned a clever premise, helped along by a smart ensemble that manages to highlight Shakespeare's work without parodying it--no small accomplishment.
Long on the Shelf, O is well directed and decently acted, but its narrative, while more or less faithful to Shakespeare, tried to do too much, pushing the characters and their emotions to unreasonable and unconvincing extremes.
Leave it to Hollywood to make a bold, challenging film for teens (and adults) only to let it collect dust on a shelf as proposed release dates were set, then scratched, many times over.
There’s an air of authenticity to the proceedings here, and stylistic pretension never obscures good storytelling.
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