Customer Reviews
Excellent, lively and amusing adaptation of the play - By: Meerkat, 10 Nov 2008 
I love this film! Shakespeare converted well into film form is a delight (see Branagh's 'Much Ado' as well) & this film is excellent.
All the characters are note perfect, & there is not a single weak performance amongst them.
Although some scenes are swapped around or merged, that helps to show the cohesion of the plot strands & works extremely well.
Characters have a dark as well as a light side; Sir Toby is a classic funny drunk, but he's also a man who is exploiting Sir Andrew for his money & keeping Maria at arm's length. Mel Smith is absolutely brilliantin the role.
Feste the Clown is a much more tragic figure than the only usually portrayed; a man with a deep melancholy, driven back to Olivia's house for lack of food & having to clown to regain admittance.
Even Sir Andrew, the idiot Knight, has unexpected reserves of dignity which surface at the end - wonderfully played by Richard E Grant.
I found the dialogue was exceptionally well spoken & the settings, costumes & characters were all wonderful.
I highly recommend this film to any 'Bardolaters' out there.
unforgettable - By: Crm Hamelinck, 03 Aug 2008 this is one of my most favourite movies. there are some splendid reviews here already, so i will keep it short.
this is shakespearian comedy with dark undertones. this tale is about the nature of love. wonderful yet terrible love... etc. not everyone wins at the end. The actors are all wonderfully cast, & the landscape & locations are brilliant to. there is also a wonderful balance between the romance, the pangs of unrequitted love, laughs, music, chaos, revenge, etc. & it is all perfect. Ben Kingsley's Feste i think stands out most. & when Viola speaks of love (hers being impossible), i again feel the pain i had when i had my own heart broken.
this tale is not all romantic. For instance: Maria maries Sir Toby knowing his bad habits full well, & realising he'll never 'mend'. Orsino marries Violain the end, but if we have marked his words, it is by no means certain that his love is never-ending. Shakespeare is giving us what we want, (boy gets girl) all the while warning us about the true nature & many faces of love.
Twelfth Night - By: Mr. Marc Rosson, 14 Jun 2008 By the way I am not Mr Marc I am his stepdaughter my account does not work at the moment. I must admit that when I first saw this film, it was at schoolin English. We had a choice MacBeth or twelfth Night 1996. We chose Twelfth Night having already looked at MacBethin yr7 & found it INCREDIBLY BORING! Twelfth Night however like William Shakespere's "The Tempest" took me by surprise. The film is related to shakespere's lifein many ways. One is that Shakespere at his time suffered puritins wanting to shut down theatres all over. The character Malvoilio the servant who is made a fool of is meant to be a puritin. It mocks the puritins butin a comic way. Another is Shakespere had twins & most of his stories protagonists are twins including Twelfth Night. The film portrays one of the two themes shakespere wrote about Tragedy. Seperated by a shipwreck both identical twins have no idea that the other is alive. The stories main protagonist is Viola a young woman on a voyage with her brother. The twins make money & entertain by putting on shows aboard the ship. But when Viola "by chance" is saved by the ships captain & is landed on the island of Illyria, which is now Croatia & whos Duke is her fathers enemey, Viola is lost at what to do. She decides to hide her personality & change her characteristics & emotions to those of a castrated man. She goes to serve the Duke orsino having no idea the mess & lies she would become entangled in. The Duke begins to favour Cessario (Viola) because of her musical abilities. She gets to learn more about the Duke & discovers that he is fancies Olvia although he does not really know her. Olivia recently losing her brother has no mind to marry Orsino, so he sends Cessario to attend her. Olivia then fallsin love with the outside looks of Cessario. Meanwhile Orsino begins to fallin love with Cessario's personality.
Sebastian, Viola's twin brother believed lost, has survived with the help of another sea captain called Antonio who was a travelling guest. He is on Illyria & by chance walksin on Olivia who thinks he is cessario (identical twins). She asks him to marry her & he agrees. But when Orsino visits Olivia himself Sebastain is no where to be found & Cessario (Viola) faces a confrontation with Orsino because Olivia believing she is married to him confronts himin front of Orsino. He thinks Cessario has betrayed him & having finally accepted that he loves Cessario turns him awayin disgust. Viola has herself fallenin love with Orsino & can't bear the fact that he has turned her away. Will Sebastian arrive backin time to clear up the disagreement or will shakespere's exquisite play endin the tragedy it began with.
Other characters include Sir Toby Belch (Olivia's Uncle), Andrew Aguecheek (also related to Olivia), Maria ( Olivia's first maid & best friend), Malvolio (Olivia's servant & fool), Antonio (Sebstian's rescuer & temporary lover).
Most Wonderful - By: Red Medic, 16 Apr 2008 There are many adaptations of the Bard's work out there which fail to do it justice. Happily, this is not one of them. Nunn's casting for this magical piece of cinema is excellent, with Kingsley's mysterious but comical Feste complimenting perfectly the hateful Malvolio (Nigel Hawthorne), corpulant Sir Toby & foppish Sir Andrew Agucheek, ably portrayed by Richard E. Grant.
Sterling though the actors are, it is the female characters which bring this adaptation to life; Bonham-Carter is, as always, perfect as the whimsical & lovely Olivia, & if we can suspend out disbelief that a woman of Stubbs' frame & appearance could possibly be taken for a chap, her Viola builds a tension with Orsino which is compelling for the viewer.
However, the unsung heroine of this drama is undoubtedly Imelda Staunton, who plays the clever & cunning Maria; Staunton's portrayal of the character demonstrates her conflicting emotions revolving around the drunken, yet charismatic Sir Toby, with a sadness at times that brings a tear to the eye.
Nunn's casting is superb, & the locations & costumes are visually beautiful, making this classic tale of love & loss, even for those who are not wildly keen on Shakespeare 'most wonderful' indeed.
Does it justice. - By: Scurra, 26 Jul 2007 Having loved the play studying it for A Level, I wasn't sure if this version would enhance my fondness for it or tear it to shreds... Thankfully, it was superb: the acting was excellent all round, the period setting worked well -in being vaguely ambiguous - & the suspense & surprise were still there (even after copious watching!). Nigel Hawthorne, Mel Smith (the comedy aspects were excellent & Helena Bonham-Carter were particularly good.
However, I really wanted to mention Feste: always my favourite character (at the centre of my A Level work), I thought Kingsley was the perfect choice for the part, & captured it brilliantly: the songsin particular were even adaptations of the originals, & were performed just as they should have been. Feste's the bittersweet part of Twelfth Night (itself a very bittersweet play, when you look at it), & that did come through.
The ending is the best bit - you just want to follow Feste into the distance as everyone else has their happy (or at least resolved) ending...
