Reviews
A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999)
What the heck did they do to the play?
Good grief. OK, so it was a really pretty movie (despite some of the forest stuff looking like a kid's playset) but what did they do to Shakespeare? Hello, this is supposed to be slapstick comedy? Bottom is not supposed to have a private life. What really irritated me, though, was what they did to the Pyramus and Thisbe play at the end, where Thisbe pulls her/his wig off and gets all sincere and makes the audience teary-eyed. That is NOT supposed to happen. It absolutely ruined one of the funniest lines in the play, the "Thy lily lips, thy cherry nose, thy yellow cowslip cheeks" part. The Pyramus and Thisbe scene is supposed to be a disaster from start to finish, which is what makes it funny. Also, the social/economic difference between the players and the lovers was not clearly enough established. The players looked pretty darn rich, especially the costumes they managed to find for their play. Where did they get all that fancy fabric and the nice wigs? If they could afford that kind of costumes, why were they so excited about the money the Duke was offering to the winners? One thing that was very distracting was the way Shakespeare's scenes were broken up. Like how a scene would jump to a different scene in the middle of a speech- the same guy would still be in the middle of the same speech, but all of a sudden would be in a completely different location with different people. The only things that saved this movie from being a loss were: a) they managed to salvage a bit of the play's natural humor, b) the mudfight, and c) it was pretty. It was a nice movie if you try to forget that it's supposed to be related to the Shakespeare play. If you go expecting it to be Shakespeare, you'll be disappointed.
A Little Princess (1986)
True to the story, not to pop culture (yay!).
This is definitely the best version of "A Little Princess" that I've ever personally seen. Unlike that crappy 1995 one set in New York or the one with Shirley Temple making me want to slap her, the PBS version had a Sara who looked like Sara as she was described in the book. Not only that, she *acted* like the Sara in the book, not like a whiny, boring little snot. All the acting was very good, especially Miss Minchin's sister (Miriam Margolyes) and the other schoolgirls. The screenplay was excellent. Without relying on copying the actual words and phrases of the book (although crucial plot moments were often almost word-for-word), it was very true to the spirit and intention of the book and didn't offend people who have loved and re-read the story. This is unusual for a movie based on a book. Also, the cinematography showed the dreariness of Sara's life and world very clearly with its rainy, muted colors.
All in all this was a completely wonderful movie. See it if you possibly can, although since it was broadcast on PBS at least ten years ago it's probably hard to find .