Sneak previews are fun. Better yet, getting into a sneak preview and sitting the press section — that’s a lot of fun. Better than all of that, though, is getting to see a version of Midsummer’s Night’s Dream while sitting the press section. To make it even more exciting, and to add to the recent trip I had to AZ, the Daily Texan staff was there… Now that’s a thing I remember, and it wasn’t too long ago. I reviewed something like 60 movies each semester for a while, and I recalled sitting there in the press section, feeling like a big shot member of the media. I worked at a paper that was similar in size and circulation to the Daily Texan.
I was going to write a review, but when I got home, I found that I missed several points, right from the very start. I was sure that I had the dates of the play better fixed in my head than the flak who introduced the movie. And I was sure that some of the lines were mangled, a few of my favorite lines. To its credit, the movie is wonderful. It’s certainly worth a few bucks to see. I’m not too terribly fond of many of the “period” interpretations of Shakespeare’s work, but the movie makers all have to have something to work with, and this one was better than most. The actor playing Oberon has some classical training, as does the guy who played Bottom. And that must have been one of the most choice parts in the play, Bottom. And Puck himself was delightfully done.
There’s something that classically trained Shakespearean actors, usually folks trained in England, all seem to have. When speaking the prose, the lines, the classically trained theater people all seem to understand the feeling behind the lines, and the words roll off their tongues. There’s none of the “declaiming” stuff, none of the stilted delivery, the hesitancy as they work their way through the verse. The natural rhythm and cadence isn’t delivered in a sing song, except when it’s called for, and that makes all the difference. In the last few weeks, I’ve gotten e-mail that was intended for someone else, and I’ve been quoting back part of Puck’s concluding speech. So by the end of the movie, I’m doing the words with Puck — and that actor deserves a special note of appreciation for the levity he brings to the part. The rest of it? I don’t know, I didn’t get a press kit.
But I do have to see the movie again. I guess that means it’s a good one.
