Film Review for Extra Credit

I always love watching film interpretations of Shakespeare plays, because I feel like they give the characters so much more life than can be gleaned from the script. This movie adaptation of Twelfth Night was no exception, and after viewing, I think that I have a better understanding of the play as a whole.

One main difference that I noticed while watching the film, is that it really depicts the tragic side to the story, while the play focuses more on the comedy. I never paused to think about just how sad the separation of Viola and Sebastian is, but the movie had to establish the background of the characters so it was necessary to include it. I thought that the opening of the movie was perfect, because it begins with Viola and Sebastian performing an act of gender confusion in front of the ship’s passengers which foreshadowed what was to come.

I actually greatly enjoyed the performance of the actor who played Orsino. He acted with just the right amount of ridiculousness in the beginning when he first appears in the film lying on a couch, whining about love and music surround by several stately gentlemen. I loved the dynamic between Orsino and Viola, shown in several scenes such as when she accidentally causes him to hit his broken arm on a rock and the awkward bathtub scene.

I think that some scenes were a little bit overdramatic, but I also think that may be largely to do with the soundtrack. Sometimes the music made a scene seem much more serious than it needed to be, but other times, it really added to the comedy. Marvolio’s theme in particular made his circumstances seem more hilarious to me. I think that I actually appreciated Marvolio’s character the most. The movie made it seem completely logical and justified that he would want Sir Toby and his friends to stop their noise making in the middle of the night. The scene where he is trapped in the cellar also made me feel pity for him more than delight at his foolishness. In fact, I think my absolute favorite moment of the entire movie was when Malvolio ostentatiously takes off his robe to reveal his yellow stockings to Olivia.

I think that I particularly enjoyed the film because I felt so much anxiety during all of the identity confusion at the end, that when everything was finally resolved, I felt a cathartic release even though that is something attributed to Shakespeare's tragedies. In the end, I think the film did an excellent job establishing the chemistry between the different character pairings.