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"O"
(Reviewed August 2, 2001)
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This surprisingly enjoyable film-noirish update of Shakespeare's "Othello" moves the action to a prep school in the present-day American south, which sounds ridiculous, but somehow it actually works.
Martin Sheen is a histrionic basketball coach whose neglected-'n'-bitter son Hugo (Josh Hartnett) resents star player Odin James (the excellent Mekhi Phifer), who was recruited as the school's only black
student and receives special treatment because he is the team's ticket to a championship. "O" is in love with the dean's daughter Desi, played by Julia Stiles (last seen in "Save the Last Dance," and apparently
Hollywood's go-to girl these days for black/white love affair flicks). Hugo engineers Odin's downfall by manipulating several classmates in ye olde "web of deception."
Director Tim Blake Nelson (who was one of George Clooney's dunderheaded chain-gang comrades in "O Brother, Where Art Thou," incredibly enough) keeps everything dead serious
throughout. Don't expect any injections of Hollywoodish comic relief, or any knowing winks at the audience. The movie plays like an actual drama, as opposed to an embarrassingly arty stunt (such as the
horrendous Ethan Hawke version of "Hamlet," which retained all of the bard's dialog but moved all the action to the present day) or a genre-jumping goof (such as Kenneth Branagh's musical version of
"Love's Labours Lost"). The movie isn't perfect--a crucial scarf wanders from person to person in unlikely ways, for example--but overall, "O" is one heck of a lot better than you will expect it to be on
your way into the theatre.
Back Row Grade: B
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