Othello

Shakespeare's classic tragedy of jealousy, deceit, conspiracy, & murder. Othello's great love for Desdemona proves to be too much to bear.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: R
Release Date: 18-JAN-2000
Media Type: DVD

Oliver Parker, a stage and film actor (Hellraiser), made his directorial debut with this scaled-back version of Shakespeare's play about the paranoid Moor, Othello (Laurence Fishburne), and his manipulative friend, Iago (Kenneth Branagh). Parker gets the story so lean he starts running a little short on the author's subtext, and if it's possible to overemphasize the banality of Iago's scheming and Othello's malleability, he does so. The director throws out what is universal in the story and makes it all seem merely ordinary, human, and unfortunate, which is the opposite of what watching Shakespeare should be. In the end, it's hard to care what these characters have done to one another. Branagh's Iago is a little flat and unfocused, while Fishburne is excellent as a quieter Othello than we're accustomed to. With Irène Jacob (Red) as Desdemona. --Tom Keogh