The Merchant of Venice (2004)

Sum: Remember grade 10 English? Okay, good. If not, Bassanio (Joseph Fiennes) wants to borrow money from his depressed friend, Antonio (Jeremy Irons), the title character, so he can woo the beautiful and rich Portia (Lynn Collins). Antonio's a little down on his luck as well, so he borrows money from the Jewish Shylock (Al Pacino), who, instead of charging his usual high rate of interest, requires a pound of Antonio's fair flesh at the forfeitsure of the bond.

You can guess where this is going to end up, can't you?

I remember way back when I read this that I was too busy laughing right out loud at Shakespeare's hilarity (that dude's funny) while the rest of my class stared at me for many obvious reasons instead of wondering what my Jewish teacher thought of the play's outrageous Anti-Semitism. He basically brushed it off as saying that it was very common in the day, and Shakespeare's audience would find Shylock's forced conversion at the end merciful.

Our timid curriculum did nothing to stand up against it, and we all just let it slide.

Adapter-director Michael Radford rightly puts Shylock at the centre of the story, and Pacino restrains himself more than he has in years, making his heartbreak and eventual lashing out all the more painful to watch. Radford, though, like my English teacher of yore, brushed off the racism that haunts the play. He plays it lip service with a historical note at the beginning, and he doesn't seem to give it a second thought after that. I felt like he was missing the point.

He was quick to note, however, the highly suspect relationship between Bassanio and Antonio. I have never doubted that it was Antonio's more-than-friends love that pushed him so far for Bassanio's sake. Irons conveys that love that dares not speak its name well, and I did feel a bit bad for him the whole way through, even if he was a little villain-y himself.

Before I saw the movie, I read that Collins had replaced a very pregnant Cate Blanchett in the play's pivotal role. Now I wish I had never gained this piece of information. Although she bears a physical resemblance to Blanchett, Collins is an actress of nowhere near the calibre. She did a good job, but knowing that it should of been Blanchett made it not good enough.

As for Fiennes, I haven't liked him since he worked with Blanchett in 1998's masterful Elizabeth. I was much too distracted by his eyes being way too close together to think much of his performance.

There were some bright spots in the performances of Kris Marshall as Gratiano, Zuleikha Robinson as Jessica, and cute Charlie Cox as Lorenzo but not in Benoît Delhomme's cinematography. This was the most dreary, cold, and depressing Venice I have ever seen. Ever. I know no one place is permanent sunshine and happiness, but the wintery feel to this movie juxtaposed with the CGI'ed kingdom of love where Portia resides is too much. That's where they are keeping all the happiness, I guess.

I can't argue with Shakespeare's comedy or his time-representative racism. Nonetheless, I can argue with how we refuse to deal with it today. B