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Trying to appreciate without prior study every little nuance of Shakespeare's dialogue in Michael Hoffman's new film treatment of A Midsummer Night's Dream may be somewhat akin to programming your VCR using the King James Bible as an owner's manual (although some people insist the instructions are in there, right next to Ezekiels's close encounter with a UFO). But Hoffman, who visited the Renaissance once before with his lavish costume drama Reformation (he's better known for the romantic comedy One Fine Day), makes the setting, if not the verbiage of his otherwise pretty faithful abridgment, at least a little more audience-friendly by moving events from ancient Athens to a lavish, society wedding in 1890s Monte Athena, Italy. In so doing he grants us a big, creative favor, opening up the comedic possibilities to non-Bardophiles by putting everybody equally off-balance; while we grapple with Elizabethan English, and the mortal characters' unrequited love is further complicated by mischief from meddling fairies, the spirits themselves have to contend with such unfamiliar turn-of-the-century technology as the bicycle and victrola.
It works charmingly well. Aided further by the casting of familiar faces, A Midsummer Night's Dream is one of the most comfortable Will-on-Film efforts to date. Thought some may find Calista Flockheart rather, pardon the expression, lightweight as the flummoxed, lovelorn Helena (though she has an extensive pre-"McBeal" theater background), the other roles are all spot-on. Stanley Tucci makes a great Puck, craftily understating what can be the way over-the-top role (Rupert Everett's Oberon may be a bit too laid-back) of a troublesome imp who delights in taunting mortals; the scene where he warily sneaks up on an abandoned two-wheeler had the otherwise reserved crowd at my viewing, a rather staid bunch who apparently subscribed to the banal-retentive school of theatre appreciation, howling. Michelle Pfeiffer is also bewitchingly subtle in a role where letting her beauty do the talking isn't a bad thing, softly sparkling – literally – as the faerie queen Titania. But it's The Mechanicals, the amateur thespians who put on the Play Within the Play, who really make it memorable. Kevin Kline almost steals the whole show as Bottom, the hammy, asinine dreamer who spends a wondrous night with Titania thanks to Puck and Oberon's scheming. Once these and other affairs des couer are settled and the loopy tale of "Pyramus and Thisbe" is performed for the wedding guests, Kline leads what has been a fairly restrained outing spiced with a little discreet bare skin here, some genteel breast-holding there, and a non-gratuitous ladies' mud-wrestling match, to a riotous finale, aided by Max Wright (remember the balding dad from "Alf"?), renowned slapstick dancer Bill Irwin (who makes too few forays into film), and Sam Rockwell (Safe Men), who in the midst of farcical deconstruction delivers a brief speech that leaves both the movie audience and the in-movie audience feeling they've just been privileged to witness a moment of rare dramatic power..
Filmed in the gorgeous Italian hills around Tuscany, featuring a soundtrack that is already nearing the top of the classical music charts, A Midsummer Night's Dream hints that, as long as such ingenuity as Hoffman's is available, the latest Shakespearean revival has a lot of energy left. B+
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