Twelfth Night: Or What You Will Reviews
Luke B
Super Reviewer
December 21, 2007
Light-hearted Shakespeare just as it should be. Pretty much perfectly cast with each actor hitting all the right notes. Still like with most Shakespeare it will never match up to its source material but at least it goes for a fair balance between the theatrical and the cinematic.
John B
Super Reviewer
December 7, 2012
Okay passable Shakespeare like the type that you are usually forced to endure in a high school class but don't remember well beyond the exam on the subject.
Marion R
Super Reviewer
January 11, 2009
I really enjoyied this adaptation. It was much more fun. I just really thought it was great!
macabrescribe
July 21, 2009
At first, it was a little confusing because the film assumes you know the story already. But after a while, you catch on and it becomes quite humorous.
August 29, 2007
umm... it wasnt horrible but the girl/man ws really ugly, and canning tatum is way hotter, she's the man is way better.
nusratismyelvis
August 22, 2007
Not as funny as the play production I saw of Twelfth Night, but still very well acted- this movie could stand to take itself less seriously.
countrylass16
August 2, 2007
Was my absolute favorite for the longest time. Now, i still love it, but there are many other great ones out there
June 29, 2007
it was soo confusing but good movie all the same. it was funny, sad, and weird. "be not afriad of greatness. some are born great. some achieve greatness. and some have greatness thrust upon them." great line
June 16, 2007
I love Shakespeare, though I am unfamiliar with this particular play. The movie, however, because I was unfamiliar with the play, felt disjointed and rushed, though the acting was delightful. Ben Kingsley was delicious as the wise fool, full of depth and sharp, perceptive glances.
March 5, 2007
I have loved this movie for years.. It's my favorite Shakespeare play, and this version is great.. Richard E. Grant is hilarious, Ben Kingsley is amazing, .. and Imogen Stubbs is irresistable.. Not to mention, of course Helena Bonhem Carter, stunning as always.. Overall just a perfect movie.
kemcmanus
December 27, 2006
The Brits hate to admit it, but Trevor Nunn is a BRILLIANT director of Shakespeare on the screen, and this sentimental rendering of a most unsentimental play is notable for the honesty in the older lovers and the best damn Viola in the history of Violas.
madelineschulman
November 26, 2006
I think this is the one set so many centuries after Shakespeare that it makes no sense -- you don't have jesters in the 19th century.
acreekfan
August 6, 2006
One of the best Shakespeare adaptations. Helena Bonham Carter does an outstanding job as always and makes this movie along with the other actors even understandable for the shakespeare novice.
June 10, 2012
we are performing this play at school so we watched this film. i love the play but i found the film quite boring. however i think Helena Bonham Carter as Olivia was really good and so was Richard E. Grant as Sir Andrew Aguecheek.
Adrian B.
September 11, 2010
Once again, this Shakepeare play does nothing for me. I thought it was bizarre, unfunny and dull. Not a great play, nor film.
Functionally Godarded
December 22, 2008
In my AP Literature and Composition class, we watched Trevor Nunn's [b]Twelfth Night[/b], which we just finished reading. It was funny and well-acted. Ben Kingsley and Helena Bonham-Carter are truly gifted actors and they handle Shakespeare's language very effectively. Imelda Staunton is also good, playing a different kind of role for her. This is a very faithful and ultimately charming film version of one of the Bard's classic comedies. [b][u]7/10[/u][/b]
In my American Film class, we also watched a film (as one might expect). We just finished [b]The Godfather[/b] last week and our assignment over break is to watch Part II (it's on my Christmas list). However, in the past week we watched Martin Scorcese's [b]Raging Bull[/b], which is fueled by a transformative and hugely powerful performance by Robert DeNiro. Very similar to [b]Milk[/b], DeNiro inhabits the role and you forget who it is. A lot of the problems that I've had with DeNiro's other performances are that it's so obvious that it's DeNiro. The director was trying to say, "This is Robert DeNiro, you guys!" and not "This is Jake LaMotta." or whatever other role he was playing. Raging Bull is obviously a classic, the second best movie of 1980 (second only to another black and white film). [b][u]9/10[/u][/b]
Speaking of transformative performance, I went and saw [b]Milk[/b] this past weekend with my girlfriend and it was a truly excellent film, teeming with hope despite the tragedy that everyone saw coming. It's incredibly relevent, intentionally political, and masterfully executed. The editing is perfect in creating a mood and the directing by Gus Van Sant is probably his best work. Plus Sean Penn, always there for a good performance, gives the performance that I've seen him do. He embodies Harvery Milk, he becomes the guy. It's truly amazing and ultimately moving. If you are not uncomfortable with gay characters or two men kissing or anything like that and if you believe, as I do, that everybody should have the same rights, gay or straight, black or white, tall or short, then go watch this film. It's a great work. [b][u]9/10[/u][/b]
So the last week of school is often a week of film-watching and not-class-having. In AP French Language IV, we watched the French film [b]Joyeux Noel[/b] with Diane Kruger in the lead role. The film felt terribly realistic and close to life because the languages that would have been spoken were. The language barriers and the differences between the Germans, French, and Scottish made the uniting on Christmas Eve all the more moving and powerful. It's a truly well-made film if you haven't seen it. Perfect for the holidays. [b][u]8.5/10[/u][/b]
In my AP Literature and Composition class, we watched Trevor Nunn's [b]Twelfth Night[/b], which we just finished reading. It was funny and well-acted. Ben Kingsley and Helena Bonham-Carter are truly gifted actors and they handle Shakespeare's language very effectively. Imelda Staunton is also good, playing a different kind of role for her. This is a very faithful and ultimately charming film version of one of the Bard's classic comedies. [b][u]7/10[/u][/b]
In my American Film class, we also watched a film (as one might expect). We just finished [b]The Godfather[/b] last week and our assignment over break is to watch Part II (it's on my Christmas list). However, in the past week we watched Martin Scorcese's [b]Raging Bull[/b], which is fueled by a transformative and hugely powerful performance by Robert DeNiro. Very similar to [b]Milk[/b], DeNiro inhabits the role and you forget who it is. A lot of the problems that I've had with DeNiro's other performances are that it's so obvious that it's DeNiro. The director was trying to say, "This is Robert DeNiro, you guys!" and not "This is Jake LaMotta." or whatever other role he was playing. Raging Bull is obviously a classic, the second best movie of 1980 (second only to another black and white film). [b][u]9/10[/u][/b]
Speaking of transformative performance, I went and saw [b]Milk[/b] this past weekend with my girlfriend and it was a truly excellent film, teeming with hope despite the tragedy that everyone saw coming. It's incredibly relevent, intentionally political, and masterfully executed. The editing is perfect in creating a mood and the directing by Gus Van Sant is probably his best work. Plus Sean Penn, always there for a good performance, gives the performance that I've seen him do. He embodies Harvery Milk, he becomes the guy. It's truly amazing and ultimately moving. If you are not uncomfortable with gay characters or two men kissing or anything like that and if you believe, as I do, that everybody should have the same rights, gay or straight, black or white, tall or short, then go watch this film. It's a great work. [b][u]9/10[/u][/b]
meinink2y
November 16, 2008
[i]The Diving Bell and the Butterfly[/i] is a triumph. It's incredibly moving and one of the best-made films I've ever seen. The cinematography and direction are out of this world, the acting is superb all around, and the story is absolutely beautiful. A really wonderful film.
[i]Monsters, Inc.[/i] is a Pixar classic. It's not on the tier of the more recent movies, but it's hilarious and also has a great heart. It also features some of Pixar's most memorable characters. A lot of fun.
[i]Twelfth Night[/i] is one of the best Shakespearean movies I've seen. The cast is really great, and the beautiful language seems really natural coming from all of them, which is sometimes a problem. Of course, the movie is hilarious (the play is one of Shakespeare's funniest), and Ben Kingsley's singing is an unexpected treat. A great adaptation.
Not in a particularly verbose mood.
[i]The Diving Bell and the Butterfly[/i] is a triumph. It's incredibly moving and one of the best-made films I've ever seen. The cinematography and direction are out of this world, the acting is superb all around, and the story is absolutely beautiful. A really wonderful film.
[i]Monsters, Inc.[/i] is a Pixar classic. It's not on the tier of the more recent movies, but it's hilarious and also has a great heart. It also features some of Pixar's most memorable characters. A lot of fun.
[i]Twelfth Night[/i] is one of the best Shakespearean movies I've seen. The cast is really great, and the beautiful language seems really natural coming from all of them, which is sometimes a problem. Of course, the movie is hilarious (the play is one of Shakespeare's funniest), and Ben Kingsley's singing is an unexpected treat. A great adaptation.
gillianren
October 12, 2007
[i]Twelfth Night[/i], for those who are not Shakespearean scholars, is one of the great pageboy classics. It is the play that [i]Shakespeare in Love[/i] ends with (although that's twisting the known chronology of the plays, to have it appear after [i]Romeo and Juliet[/i]). Viola is washed up on a foreign shore after a shipwreck, believing her twin brother dead and herself now alone in the world. To protect herself, she disguises herself as a boy and goes to work for the Duke Orsino.
Of course, her brother [i]isn't[/i] dead; it wouldn't be a comedy if he were. And so there is room for great confusion and misunderstanding; the Countess Olivia falls in love with the girl, thinking he's a boy--and so does the Duke Orsino. And of course, the girl falls in love with the Duke--and is at first amused and later alarmed by the pursuit of the Countess.
There is also a subplot wherein Olivia's drunken uncle conspires with several of her servants to drive her majordomo mad. This plot primarily exists, I think, to provide cheap laughs. However, it also provides an opportunity for the songs of the Fool, Feste--here played by Sir Ben Kingsley, who I didn't know could sing until I saw this. (Imelda Staunton, who plays Maria the housekeeper, doesn't have a bad voice, either.)
Two of Shakespeare's best-known quotes are from this play. The first is the first line--"If music be the food of love, play on." Orsino is trying to make himself sick of love, because Olivia won't love him back. This is in part because he has absolutely lousy timing--her father and brother have both just died. (This isn't the first line of the movie; they have added a prologue on the soon-to-be-wrecked ship.)
Equally taken out of context by most people is "Some are born great; some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them." This is part of the plot to drive Malvolio mad; Maria has written a letter in her mistress's handwriting professing love of him, and this is intended to encourage him to go after her. (It's a very complicated play at times.) It is suggesting that, by gaining the love of so great and noble (literally) a lady, Malvolio has had his own greatness thrust upon him. He falls for it hook, line, and sinker.
The movie's a little hard to find, but it's worth the search. The cast is great--Helena Bonham Carter plays Olivia, and Nigel Hawthorne is Malvolio, in addition to those already mentioned. The music, while not quite Shakespearean, is lovely. And the scenery is breathtaking. I'm not sure why there has been such a fashion of late to set Shakespeare in the 19th Century, but it does work here. The twins don't look quite enough alike to be taken for one another quite as easily as happens at the end, but I doubt the people who originally played the roles looked much like each other at all, so there we all are.
I must confess, my favourite Shakespeare is [i]Hamlet[/i]. It's traditional, I suppose; [i]everyone's[/i] favourite Shakespeare is [i]Hamlet[/i], unless they're a twelve-year-old girl, in which case it's [i]Romeo and Juliet[/i]. However, of the comedies, I have a great love of [i]Twelfth Night[/i], surpassing all others--and I love several of the other comedies full well.
[i]Twelfth Night[/i], for those who are not Shakespearean scholars, is one of the great pageboy classics. It is the play that [i]Shakespeare in Love[/i] ends with (although that's twisting the known chronology of the plays, to have it appear after [i]Romeo and Juliet[/i]). Viola is washed up on a foreign shore after a shipwreck, believing her twin brother dead and herself now alone in the world. To protect herself, she disguises herself as a boy and goes to work for the Duke Orsino.
Of course, her brother [i]isn't[/i] dead; it wouldn't be a comedy if he were. And so there is room for great confusion and misunderstanding; the Countess Olivia falls in love with the girl, thinking he's a boy--and so does the Duke Orsino. And of course, the girl falls in love with the Duke--and is at first amused and later alarmed by the pursuit of the Countess.
There is also a subplot wherein Olivia's drunken uncle conspires with several of her servants to drive her majordomo mad. This plot primarily exists, I think, to provide cheap laughs. However, it also provides an opportunity for the songs of the Fool, Feste--here played by Sir Ben Kingsley, who I didn't know could sing until I saw this. (Imelda Staunton, who plays Maria the housekeeper, doesn't have a bad voice, either.)
Two of Shakespeare's best-known quotes are from this play. The first is the first line--"If music be the food of love, play on." Orsino is trying to make himself sick of love, because Olivia won't love him back. This is in part because he has absolutely lousy timing--her father and brother have both just died. (This isn't the first line of the movie; they have added a prologue on the soon-to-be-wrecked ship.)
Equally taken out of context by most people is "Some are born great; some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them." This is part of the plot to drive Malvolio mad; Maria has written a letter in her mistress's handwriting professing love of him, and this is intended to encourage him to go after her. (It's a very complicated play at times.) It is suggesting that, by gaining the love of so great and noble (literally) a lady, Malvolio has had his own greatness thrust upon him. He falls for it hook, line, and sinker.
The movie's a little hard to find, but it's worth the search. The cast is great--Helena Bonham Carter plays Olivia, and Nigel Hawthorne is Malvolio, in addition to those already mentioned. The music, while not quite Shakespearean, is lovely. And the scenery is breathtaking. I'm not sure why there has been such a fashion of late to set Shakespeare in the 19th Century, but it does work here. The twins don't look quite enough alike to be taken for one another quite as easily as happens at the end, but I doubt the people who originally played the roles looked much like each other at all, so there we all are.
