“The Tempest” is William Shakespeare’s “Lost,” suggests Tom Conti, who plays Gonzalo in this tame adaptation shot in Hawaii, as was the ABC-TV series. First staged in 1611, “The Tempest” too is set on an uncharted island stocked with marvels and maneuvers. Theater director Julie Taymor (“Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark,” currently on Broadway; “The Lion King”) directs this version with less verve than her debut feature “Titus” (1999), another Shakespeare play that she directed on stage before reprising on screen. Taymor may prove more inventive at visualizing allusions in the bard’s four-century-old texts with puppetry and shadowplay than with CGI. With the exception of a stunning astral map designed by Kyle Cooper, most of the supernatural bits here are less than transporting. Replacing the original deposed duke Prospero, Helen Mirren (“The Queen”) stars as his widow Prospera. In political exile from Milan for a dozen years with her daughter Miranda (Felicity Jones), she conjures a shock-and-awe tempest with her magic staff. This shipwrecks old foes on her island inhabited only by the spirit Ariel (Ben Whishaw) and the slave Caliban (Djimon Hounsou). She subjects the lost seafarers to ploys and spells. This revengeful magician-cum-stage manager deludes and misleads her unaware audience, until baring her devices and revealing her agenda to wed her daughter to her usurper’s son. Despite a stellar cast and a handful of bravado touches, Taymor does not identify her own screencraft with Prospera’s witchcraft to spellbind us. With Russell Brand, Reeve Carney, Chris Cooper, Alan Cumming, Alfred Molina, David Strathairn. 110m. (Bill Stamets)
Ray Pride is Newcity’s Senior Editor and Film Critic. He is a contributing editor of Filmmaker magazine.
Ray’s history of Chicago Ghost Signs is planned for publication next year. Previews of the project are on Twitter and on Instagram. More photography on Instagram.
Heart: A Review of Soul The real world is soulful, too, in Pixar's bountiful life of the mind.
Seeing The Elephant: A Review Of Babylon The boisterous, brawling yet melancholy "Babylon," is a variation on film history, but more drawing for drama. It's gaudy and mean, celebratory and sorrowful.
Uncanny Ally: A Review Of M3GAN "M3GAN" sells itself in its first handful of seconds in how it introduces the handiwork of roboticist Gemma (Allison Williams, "Get Out") and her present product, PurrPetual Petz from Funki.
Spawn Sacrifice: A Review Of The Creator "The Creator" is richly detailed, punchy, pulpy, punkish entertainment that still has highly serious subjects in mind, without growing didactic and with substantial heart.
A Drag Getting Old: A Review Of Indiana Jones 5 In the protracted opening couple of reels, a very young, computer-crafted Harrison Ford plays a younger cultural marauder who first encounters the dull MacGuffin of the title.
Fine Line: A Review Of Shortcomings It's a season for the comeuppance of a curmudgeon in Randall Park's smart, biting "Shortcomings," adapted by Adrian Tomine from his graphic novel of the same name.
“The Tempest” is William Shakespeare’s “Lost,” suggests Tom Conti, who plays Gonzalo in this tame adaptation shot in Hawaii, as was the ABC-TV series. First staged in 1611, “The Tempest” too is set on an uncharted island stocked with marvels and maneuvers. Theater director Julie Taymor (“Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark,” currently on Broadway; “The Lion King”) directs this version with less verve than her debut feature “Titus” (1999), another Shakespeare play that she directed on stage before reprising on screen. Taymor may prove more inventive at visualizing allusions in the bard’s four-century-old texts with puppetry and shadowplay than with CGI. With the exception of a stunning astral map designed by Kyle Cooper, most of the supernatural bits here are less than transporting. Replacing the original deposed duke Prospero, Helen Mirren (“The Queen”) stars as his widow Prospera. In political exile from Milan for a dozen years with her daughter Miranda (Felicity Jones), she conjures a shock-and-awe tempest with her magic staff. This shipwrecks old foes on her island inhabited only by the spirit Ariel (Ben Whishaw) and the slave Caliban (Djimon Hounsou). She subjects the lost seafarers to ploys and spells. This revengeful magician-cum-stage manager deludes and misleads her unaware audience, until baring her devices and revealing her agenda to wed her daughter to her usurper’s son. Despite a stellar cast and a handful of bravado touches, Taymor does not identify her own screencraft with Prospera’s witchcraft to spellbind us. With Russell Brand, Reeve Carney, Chris Cooper, Alan Cumming, Alfred Molina, David Strathairn. 110m. (Bill Stamets)
