William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice (2004)
Average Rating: 6.7/10
Reviews Counted: 124
Fresh: 89 | Rotten: 35
A respectable if uneven take on the Bard's The Merchant of Venice.
Average Rating: 6.8/10
Critic Reviews: 38
Fresh: 26 | Rotten: 12
A respectable if uneven take on the Bard's The Merchant of Venice.
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Average Rating: 3.5/5
User Ratings: 19,448
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Movie Info
One of William Shakespeare's most powerful comedies has been given a bold cinematic adaptation in this film version of The Merchant of Venice. Bassanio (Joseph Fiennes) is a young and vital member of the aristocratic classes in 16th century Italy; however, Bassanio's impulsive nature and lavish lifestyle have put him deeply in debt, and he will need at least the pretense of a fortune if he is to win the hand of the beautiful Portia (Lynn Collins). Bassanio turns to his close friend Antonio
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Cast
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Al Pacino
Shylock -
Jeremy Irons
Antonio -
Joseph Fiennes
Bassanio -
Lynn Collins
Portia -
Zuleikha Robinson
Jessica -
Kris Marshall
Gratiano -
Charlie Cox
Lorenzo -
Heather Goldenhersh
Nerissa -
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Alan Corduner
Tubal -
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All Critics (127) | Top Critics (38) | Fresh (94) | Rotten (36) | DVD (20)
Pacino is at least dynamic, something harder to say about the women in the cast.
Top CriticThis is Al Pacino's show, and thankfully his Shylock is absorbing enough to carry the day.
Radford has rendered off the comedy to find the dramatic skeleton underneath. It is an approach that works stunningly well and is perhaps the only way the play can now be done.
A vivid, engrossing and defensible Shakespeare adaptation, a period piece that truly has a feel for a time long past -- and a place and attitude that are not.
Pacino's stentorian delivery and punctuating hands are almost parodistic, as likely to draw a chuckle as to elicit empathy.
Radford remains fairly reverent toward the text and the intent.
Pacino seeks his pound of flesh as a tragic outsider.
The text is wonderful, Radford's film has some fine performances from Jeremy Irons and Joseph Fiennes, and he makes good use of Venice locations.
It is really a pleasure to watch a masterful actor like Al Pacino wring every nuance out of the multifarious character of Shylock.
We see what an actor's actor Pacino can be: he's careful and watchful; respectful of other actors' timing; and says his lines perfectly, resisting all temptation to grandstand.
A richly cinematic and robust rendition of Shakespeare's pre-political correctness play about the place of Jews in anti-Semitic 16th century Venice, Michael Radford's film takes delight in dramatics thus pulling us into the story.
It has taken 5 years for Michael Radford's splendid interpretation of Shakespeare's play to come to Australia and it is worth the wait.
It's the perfect cinematic vehicle -- or at least it would have been, if Radford's adaptation weren't so unremittingly cloddish.
Pacino shapes the role masterfully. He not only rises to the role's extremes of villainous melodrama, he fills them, rendering them both theatrical and believable
It veers from real conviction to panto, but Radford is clearly committed to the play's relevance, while Pacino, the Shakespeare addict, is a joy to watch.
Manages to be a gripping and intriguing film.
It tilts so far in one direction that the comic elements seem to come from another, lesser film.
The screenplay is lean and powerful and the direction deft.
Finally, a filmatic spectacle worthy of the Scribe...
There's no Josh Hartnett, zanily recast high school setting or characters dropping acid in sight. And yet there's still a missing vibrancy and currency...
Audience Reviews for William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice
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February 4, 2009:
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July 13, 2006:
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Foreign Titles
- Der Kaufmann von Venedig (DE)
- The Merchant of Venice (UK)
