This isn't about us, readers—I mean to say, this isn't a relationship issue. Actually, I think things have been going pretty well between us thus far.
But you need to know something about me before we take this any further.
I kind of don't exactly like Shakespeare all that much.
*hunkers down in shame*
I know that it is illegal in all fifty states and also Puerto Rico for an alleged lover of all things literary to feel this way, but I don't know what to do about it. There's some Shakespeare that I like; there is some that I love, even. (Hello, Cleopatra! Could you BE more of a ball-ripping badass?) But there tends to be an overwhelming expectation that the audience will be willing to suspend its disbelief.
I don't, on the whole, really go in for suspension of disbelief. And, on a closely related topic, all of the Bard's love-at-first-sight bullshizz makes me throw up in my mouth a little.
Occasionally, however, I absolutely go to pieces over something Shakespearean, and the 2004 Merchant of Venice is the big winner this time around.
Allow me to introduce you: Jeremy Irons is Antonio, the anti-Semitic merchant. Al Pacino is Shylock, the moneylending Jew. The beautiful Joseph Fiennes is the lovestruck Bassanio, and Kris Marshall (Colin from Love, Actually, y'all—the "American girls would really dig me with my cute British accent" guy) provides comic relief as Gratiano.
Kris Marshall as Gratiano with Charlie Cox as Lorenzo
Then-newbie Lynn Collins, who has since made appearances in True Blood and X-Men Origins: Wolverine, turns out an excellent Portia (and gives a cool interview about the experience here), and the gorgeous Zuleikha Robinson (whom you may recognize from Lost) is willful Jessica. And canals abound.
Lynn Collins as Portia
The play revolves around a hideous anti-Semitism, but the movie is beautiful, so it's like watching a really gruesome, truly gorgeous train wreck. Obviously, the entire premise is utterly offensive to modern sensibilities, and I don't know what Shakespeare's angle was when he wrote it in the 1590s, though I suspect his sympathies were not in line with my own.
Jeremy Irons as Antonio
But this interpretation of it is superbly executed. The indignity of the treatment Shylock suffers at the hands of Antonio—Shylock's unflinching desire for revenge, so heartlessly sought but rooted in such oppression—the sympathetic portrayal of Shylock's ultimate fate—all are heartbreaking. And when Jessica leaves—!
Zuleikha Robinson as Jessica
I've never seen Pacino in anything before. He's been in all sorts of things I'm supposed to have seen, I think, but I almost always pick comedies over dramas. All I know is that he is AMAZING in Merchant. I would say all of my sympathies lay with Shylock were all of the characters not given such depth; I feel for all of them.
Al Pacino as Shylock
Also noteworthy is the relationship between Antonio and Bassanio; Antonio is obviously in love with his friend, a sentiment that seems to be written into the play and is not merely a product of this interpretation. Their relationship is handled with finesse and really humanizes Antonio.
Joseph Fiennes as Bassanio
I definitely recommend watching this, however you feel about Shakespeare. But be prepared: You'll be dwelling on it for some time afterward. And your musings may not be pleasant.
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