{"id":3586,"date":"2009-11-12T21:54:40","date_gmt":"2009-11-13T01:54:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/?p=3586"},"modified":"2009-11-12T21:54:40","modified_gmt":"2009-11-13T01:54:40","slug":"a-midsummer-nights-dream-1999-michael-hoffman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/archives\/3586","title":{"rendered":"A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1999, Michael Hoffman)"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s not hard to find a Shakespeare play I haven’t read\/seen\/acted, but that never stopped Katy from exclaiming “really???” whenever I claimed total unfamiliarity with Midsummer, so we finally rented her favorite version. I liked it… of course, it’s no Much Ado About Nothing<\/em> with Emma Thompson, but what is? Less zany and complicated than I’d expected. Shakespeare could’ve learned something about comedy from Howard Hawks<\/a> – or maybe it’s Hoffman, director of dullsville drama Game 6<\/em> who could learn something. Fortunately he keeps things much more animated here, seems to do a good job with the so-wide-it’s-squintingly-small-on-my-TV cinematography, though there’s mysteriously no participation by Kenneth Branagh or Michael Keaton (at the time they were busy filming Wild Wild West<\/em> and doing nothing whatsoever, respectively).<\/p>\n

Elf Ritual:<\/em>
\n\"image\"<\/p>\n

Ally, Bale, McNutty, Friel:<\/em>
\n\"image\"<\/p>\n

Okay, Dominic West (The Wire<\/a>‘s<\/em> McNulty) loves Pushing Daisies<\/em> star Anna Friel (who doesn’t?) but her fun-hating parents insist she marry boring Christian Bale (toning things down after Velvet Goldmine<\/a><\/em>) who is being stalked by Calista Ally McBeal Flockhart. Unconnected to any of that, Kevin Kline’s cheesy theater group (including Sam Rockwell) is preparing a play to be performed at the royal court. And all of this would probably end badly if not for the meddling of elf king Rupert Everett (Dunston Checks In<\/em>) who sends puckish Stanley Tucci to prank fairy queen Michelle Pfeiffer, and along the way he turns Kline into a half-donkey and screws with the four lovers. Mud fights and bicycle rides ensue.<\/p>\n

Rockwell is a woman, Kline is a ham, the guy behind them is a wall:<\/em>
\n\"image\"<\/p>\n

Convincingly elvish elf Tucci with mopey Rupert:<\/em>
\n\"image\"<\/p>\n

In the end everything is sorta normal except that Kline’s play is a hit, McNutty is allowed to be with his girl, and Bale magically loves Ally. I was surprised that McNutty and Ally gave the best performances of the four, even edging out all the magical beings (well maybe not Stanley Tucci), and Kline is excellent, bringing a touch of sadness to his mostly ridiculous comic-relief role. So where’s he been hiding this decade? Prepping for a comeback, hopefully.<\/p>\n

Donkey-Kline and Queen Pfeiffer:<\/em>
\n\"image\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s not hard to find a Shakespeare play I haven’t read\/seen\/acted, but that never stopped Katy from exclaiming “really???” whenever I claimed total unfamiliarity with Midsummer, so we finally rented her favorite version. I liked it… of course, it’s no Much Ado About Nothing with Emma Thompson, but what is? Less zany and complicated than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[451,970,969,524,968],"class_list":["post-3586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie","tag-1990s","tag-christian-bale","tag-kevin-kline","tag-shakespeare","tag-stanley-tucci"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3586"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3653,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3586\/revisions\/3653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}