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List Price: $14.99 | | Label: Image Entertainment
Salesrank: 4474
Released: August 30, 2005 |
| Our Price: $10.71 |
| Used Price: $10.80 |
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MPAA Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
A once-in-a-lifetime cast shines in this hilarious version of the beloved Shakespeare comedy! When a shipwreck separates siblings Viola and Sebastian in a foreign land, each thinks the other is dead, and both embark on a series of romantic misadventures involving deception, cross-dressing, dashing counts, obese alcoholics and a perceptive fool who presides over the entire madcap affair. A delight from start to finish, this dazzling treat is British comedy at its best!
When a shipwreck separates siblings Viola and Sebastian in a foreign land, both think the other is dead and embarks on a series of romantic misadventures.
Twelfth Night Reviews:
hmmm. 
2009-12-07 - This movie was quite hard to understand. And it seemed a bit gay at times.. Not somthing i would watch again. I liked Helena Bonham carter much better in room with a view!
Very nice! 
2009-11-27 - For a film adaptation of a Shakespeare play, this is great. The acting - especially Feste the clown, played by Ben Kingsley - makes this a film worth owning.
Pretty creative adaptation...
2009-11-21 -
I do not usually comment on Shakespearean plays, yet because this adaptation of William Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" is set in the Victorian period, I thought I would comment.
1.
This adaptation contains good acting and more elaborate sets than any other adaptation of "Twelfth Night" I have ever seen. The picture quality is also good (considering this adaptation was produced for a wide-range of viewers rather than merely aficionados of William Shakespeare's plays).
2.
The adaptation is pretty loyal to the original play. Of course, there are some deviations such as when Malvolio rides a bicycle in pursuit of Cesario (which is entirely against Malvolio's personality, even when set in the Victorian period), not to mention that it is still a little early for the type of bicycle Malvolio rode.
3.
I thought the 'romantic' scenes were effective. Unlike some adaptations, this Cesario actually looks like she could be male (rather than a female actor dressed up). Of course, when Shakespeare plays were originally produced, male actors played the female parts.
Final thoughts:
I think this adaptation is worth watching. I enjoyed watching it. I especially thought Ben Kingley as Feste played his part well. (PS: Feste is given a larger role in this film adaptation than he would have been in an actual rendition of William Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night."
Nunn's Twelfth Night
2009-08-28 - Although I am a Shakespeare scholar, I am not what one might call a "purist". That is, I can enjoy film adaptations of Shakespeare's plays which do not include every word of the text, which rearrange lines and/or leave out dozens of lines at a time. Such an adaptation is Trevor Nunn's. He even includes Shakespeare-LIKE added dialogue at the beginning of the film along with scenes which Shakespeare did not write, since, unfortunately, Shakespeare did not have the advatage of cinema. A professor once told me that Shakespeare would have loved film, especially for Antony and Cleopatra, which jumps back and forth frequently between Alexandria and Rome. The same may be said of Twelfth Night, which "cuts" from various outdoor settings in Illyria to Orsino's dwelling to Olivia's house to Olivia's grounds. Trevor Nunn's adaptation takes full advantage of these cinemamatic advantages.
I have one quibble, however, and it is considerable. I know that actors in a film should not "declaim", in stagey deliveries of lines from plays, especially Shakespeare's. However, I do expect the speeches, however "naturally" they are delivered to be intelligible, at audible volume. Such, it seemed to me, is not always the case with Nunn's adaptation. Actors often mumble or practically whisper their lines (especially true of Helena Bonham Carter), and if I were not familiar with the play, I would have no idea of what they are saying. I find it disappointing that the director should not have noted this during the rushes (or whenever) and sharpened the delivery so that more of Shakespeare's irreplaceable lines could be distinctly heard and understood.
However, Trevor Nunn's film of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night is remarkably successful in most instances, and this is largely due to the perfect casting.
In the Whirligig of Time 
2009-06-23 - Trevor Nunn's impeccably cast Twelfth Night does a stunning job of revealing the symbolism that saturates this play. Nunn's masterly tightening and interweaving of Shakespeare's scenes accentuates the symbols in the text while his cinematography makes haunting use of visual images that are the staples of Celtic legend. That earlier world's own metaphysical investment in the mystical union of opposites parallels Shakespeare's preoccupation with the double marriage. By merging these worlds and their symbols - the Shakespearean and the Celtic, the textual and the visual - so seamlessly together Nunn and his superlative team bring manna to starved souls.
