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The Tempest
Shakespeare's epic play is translated from page to screen, with the gender of the main character, Prospero, changed from male to female. The sorceress Prospera's journey spirals through vengeance to forgiveness as she reigns over a magical island, cares for her young daughter and unleashes her powers against shipwrecked enemies.
14 October 1980, Clifton, Bedfordshire, England, UK
24 May 1953, London, England, UK
4 June 1975, Grays, Essex, England, UK
9 July 1951, Kansas City, Missouri, USA
24 April 1964, Cotonou, Benin
26 January 1949, San Francisco, California, USA
26 July 1945, Chiswick, London, England, UK
17 October 1983, Birmingham, West Midlands, England, UK
22 November 1941, Paisley, Scotland, UK
27 January 1965, Aberfeldy, Perthshire, Scotland, UK
18 April 1983, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA
December 29, 2011
There are two reasons to watch The Tempest: if you're a fan of Shakespeare, or a fan of Helen Mirren.
April 29, 2011
Taymor excels at creating visuals that are so beautiful you want to hang every frame on your wall, but content-wise this film falls really flat.
September 20, 2011
Taymor tries a little too hard, neither breaking nor broken by the play, but ultimately losing the wrestling match. [Blu-ray]
May 03, 2015
Julie Taymor has a theatre director's idea of how movies work. That's not a compliment.
September 28, 2011
Hundreds of years ago, Shakespeare would have never imagined this story could look like Taymor's vision.
December 17, 2010
Normally I'd watch Helen Mirren in anything, even if she was just putting out the laundry or reading the phone book. But, given the roteness of her line readings here, it might have been better if the phone book rather than Shakespeare was her text.
June 28, 2013
Dispensing with tableau compositions, this adaptation feels liberated from static theatrical and, to a lesser degree, cinematic convention by the overall openness of its staging and camerawork that's somewhere between handheld and Steadicam.
March 02, 2011
You expect Nicolas Cage to pop up from behind a sand dune on a Harley brandishing a rocket launcher.
December 17, 2010
The costumes designed by Sandy Powell - leather gowns and military uniforms, Renaissance in silhouette and detailed with zippers - are the film's most arresting element.
December 17, 2010
Most plays-turned-movies try to open things up. Taymor still thinks like a theater director, ending up with a "Tempest" that takes place in a teapot.
December 17, 2010
Primarily an exercise in eccentric (and, I would argue, empty) spectacle.
December 27, 2010
Taymor, by turning Prospero into a woman while retaining an "imperialist" view of Caliban, will no doubt simultaneously please and enrage left-wing critics. The rest of us can enjoy the movie's strengths...
