`When devils will the blackest sins put on,/They do suggest at first with heavenly shows,/As I do now.'
I'll get right to the point here: `Othello' is my favorite Shakespeare play. Trying not to compare `O' with `Othello' is almost impossible. I would hazard to guess, though, that the majority of the people in the audience who saw this film with me have not read the play, from their gasps of shock at the `surprise' twists. I think they enjoyed the film quite a lot, and good for them, because there is quite a lot to like about the film. Here I am mostly thinking of Mekhi Phifer (Odin), Julia Styles (Desi), and Josh Hartnett (Hugo), who turn in astonishingly good performances. I will get to those nice things in a moment, however, because there are a couple of things I want to point out that made the film difficult for me to enjoy.
Firstly, I would like to address the poster for the film. The poster is, essentially, Josh Hartnett's beautiful face in the top left quadrant, Julia Styles' beautiful face in the top right quadrant, and a tiny little Mekhi Phifer at the bottom, holding a basketball and framed in a large O'. This may not be important to the overall enjoyment of the film, but to me, it left a bad taste in my mouth. Hugo and Desi are not linked romantically in the film (rather, it's Desi and Odin), but they take up about half the poster. Meanwhile, Odin (the title character) is small and greatly overshadowed. Now, I thought long and hard about why the poster designers and producers would have done this, and I came to the conclusion that it's because Phifer is black and Styles and Hartnett are white, and, naturally the studio can't put a handsome black man and a beautiful white girl together on the poster. This kind of attitude is extremely upsetting, and if anyone could clear this matter up for me, it'd be greatly appreciated. Otherwise, I stand by my diagnosis.
Another minor problem that I have with the film centers around the character of Hugo. Now, Josh Hartnett did an extremely good job portraying the character, and I was very impressed with his acting skills. I repeat: I am NOT putting down Hartnett's performance. Having said that, I thought that Hugo was a little too sympathetic for my liking. Iago hates Othello simply because he chose Cassio instead of him as lieutenant, and this small slight sets him on the quest to ruin the lives of both men. Hugo, however, is a kid who's underappreciated by his basketball coach dad (Martin Sheen, an actor's actor), and overlooked by his buddy Odin at the MVP ceremony for a mere sophomore. He's jealous of anyone with more talent than him, which fits Odin to a T. This basically puts him in the `teenager who's so hard done by' category, and this makes him too sympathetic, especially to teenagers. After all, what teenager isn't underappreciated by their parents? What teenager doesn't feel like no-one's paying attention to them? Instead of being a twisted, Machiavellian villain, Hugo is the High School kid pushed too far and out for revenge. I would prefer the near-perfect evil of Iago to the misunderstood Hugo any day.
Having made these two points, I did quite enjoy the film (even though it may not have appeared so in my previous two paragraphs). The three main young actors (Phifer, Styles, and Hartnett) put out terrific performances, and there is great screen chemistry between both Phifer & Styles and Phifer & Hartnett. Martin Sheen is great to watch as a basketball coach on his way to a coronary, Rain Phoenix nails the character of Emily, and even the underused John Heard (as the Dean) adds a few subtle touches. Tim Blake Nelson's direction is quite commendable, and there are a couple of very creative cinematography tricks; I especially liked the scene where Hugo and his father talk in his office and the camera slowly pans forward in through the window.
The film addresses many themes (racism, jealousy, distrust, pride), and although it doesn't take a stand on any of them, the film moved at a good pace and kept the plot as convincingly twisted as it needed to be. All in all, it was a good movie, exciting if you haven't read the play, and an interesting interpretation of the story if you have. 7/10
I'll get right to the point here: `Othello' is my favorite Shakespeare play. Trying not to compare `O' with `Othello' is almost impossible. I would hazard to guess, though, that the majority of the people in the audience who saw this film with me have not read the play, from their gasps of shock at the `surprise' twists. I think they enjoyed the film quite a lot, and good for them, because there is quite a lot to like about the film. Here I am mostly thinking of Mekhi Phifer (Odin), Julia Styles (Desi), and Josh Hartnett (Hugo), who turn in astonishingly good performances. I will get to those nice things in a moment, however, because there are a couple of things I want to point out that made the film difficult for me to enjoy.
Firstly, I would like to address the poster for the film. The poster is, essentially, Josh Hartnett's beautiful face in the top left quadrant, Julia Styles' beautiful face in the top right quadrant, and a tiny little Mekhi Phifer at the bottom, holding a basketball and framed in a large O'. This may not be important to the overall enjoyment of the film, but to me, it left a bad taste in my mouth. Hugo and Desi are not linked romantically in the film (rather, it's Desi and Odin), but they take up about half the poster. Meanwhile, Odin (the title character) is small and greatly overshadowed. Now, I thought long and hard about why the poster designers and producers would have done this, and I came to the conclusion that it's because Phifer is black and Styles and Hartnett are white, and, naturally the studio can't put a handsome black man and a beautiful white girl together on the poster. This kind of attitude is extremely upsetting, and if anyone could clear this matter up for me, it'd be greatly appreciated. Otherwise, I stand by my diagnosis.
Another minor problem that I have with the film centers around the character of Hugo. Now, Josh Hartnett did an extremely good job portraying the character, and I was very impressed with his acting skills. I repeat: I am NOT putting down Hartnett's performance. Having said that, I thought that Hugo was a little too sympathetic for my liking. Iago hates Othello simply because he chose Cassio instead of him as lieutenant, and this small slight sets him on the quest to ruin the lives of both men. Hugo, however, is a kid who's underappreciated by his basketball coach dad (Martin Sheen, an actor's actor), and overlooked by his buddy Odin at the MVP ceremony for a mere sophomore. He's jealous of anyone with more talent than him, which fits Odin to a T. This basically puts him in the `teenager who's so hard done by' category, and this makes him too sympathetic, especially to teenagers. After all, what teenager isn't underappreciated by their parents? What teenager doesn't feel like no-one's paying attention to them? Instead of being a twisted, Machiavellian villain, Hugo is the High School kid pushed too far and out for revenge. I would prefer the near-perfect evil of Iago to the misunderstood Hugo any day.
Having made these two points, I did quite enjoy the film (even though it may not have appeared so in my previous two paragraphs). The three main young actors (Phifer, Styles, and Hartnett) put out terrific performances, and there is great screen chemistry between both Phifer & Styles and Phifer & Hartnett. Martin Sheen is great to watch as a basketball coach on his way to a coronary, Rain Phoenix nails the character of Emily, and even the underused John Heard (as the Dean) adds a few subtle touches. Tim Blake Nelson's direction is quite commendable, and there are a couple of very creative cinematography tricks; I especially liked the scene where Hugo and his father talk in his office and the camera slowly pans forward in through the window.
The film addresses many themes (racism, jealousy, distrust, pride), and although it doesn't take a stand on any of them, the film moved at a good pace and kept the plot as convincingly twisted as it needed to be. All in all, it was a good movie, exciting if you haven't read the play, and an interesting interpretation of the story if you have. 7/10