Titus

I approach nearly all Shakespeare film productions with trepidation because, to make no bones about it, oftentimes they are boring with a capital B. There are a handful that I will watch over and over again (most often, Much Ado About Nothing from 1993 and Richard III from 1995). Sadly, this would not be one of them. It's not due to any lack of cinematographic, costuming or mise-en-scene skill of Julie Taymor. How she makes Shakespeare's words work with wholly new scene designs is worth the money you pay to rent it. (In particular, watch the scene in which the father, brother, sister and uncle meet at the crossroads to the hanging.) The problem is more a factor of the lack of enthusiasm on the part of nearly all the actors, Alan Cumming and Harry Lennix excluded. Anthony Hopkins as the war hero Titus Andronicus was so bland I nodded off a few times during his soliloquies. This is a death knell for Shakespeare films; if you can't keep up your own interest, how do you expect the audience to do so? The ending is a real shocker, even for one of Will's tragedies, in its fast and furiousness. So, it's lengthy and sometimes boring or incomprehensible, but if you are a fan of Taymor's, you'll enjoy it well enough.

year: 1999
length: 162 min.
rating: 3.0
IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120866/combined