The Merchant of Venice

The Merchant of Venice - **1/2

Only one week after Joel Schumacher brought Andrew Loyd Webber's "The Phantom of the Opera" to the screen, Michael Radford has debuted "The Merchant of Venice", the first English language big screen version of the classic and contraversial play by William Shakespeare. While Shakespeare presented the events in a rye, humourous fashion, Radford's version is much darker, choosing to concentrate the most on the theme of religious discrimination. His Shylock (played by Al Pacino) is seen as more of a hero than a villain (which, all things considered, isn't really a fair presentation) because of this discrimination, despite his blood lust. I'm not sure if this is unintentional or not, but all of the leading "good guy" (in the play) characters come off as being really villainous. If this is a sign of Radford wanting to present the play with more of a modern interpretation (which completely rips it out of Shakesperean context), he ought to have adapted the characters to fit. Jeremy Irons' portrayal of Antonio is bleak and boring, and the same goes for Joseph Fiennes as Bassanio. This is really just Shakespeare minus the all of the charm, and the drama is inconsistent, one sided and dull. Thumbs down.