Twelfth Night Movie Critique

William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night is one of my favorite plays; one I have seen and read multiple times. The 1996 movie, Twelfth Night, did adequate justice in reproducing the play in its entirety, but I was expecting a bit more from the cast in their portrayal of individual characters. I do believe that Helen Bonham Carter did a brilliant job as Lady Olivia. Her performance was an accurate representation of how I expected Olivia to be. However, I was ultimately surprised in Olivia’s relationship with Feste, a man who was in the simplest terms her servant. While Olivia talked with him prior to Viola’s entrance in Act 1, they seemed almost familial in their closeness in how they communicated, not at all demonstrating the expected relationship between a lady of rank and her clown.

Another character that I was most fond of was Richard Grant’s portrayal of Sir Andrew. Sir Andrew was over-the-top and completely foolish in all that he said and did, thus bringing the true Shakespearean character to life. As much as I loved the character, I felt he was down-played in that he always seemed to be in the shadows of Sir Toby. With that I mean that whenever Sir Toby and Sir Andrew shared a scene I felt that the camera focused more so on Sir Toby, elevating him in the eyes of the audience and overlooking Sir Andrew. I had a difficult time watching Sir Toby and Sir Andrew because I could not seem them as friends. While reading the play, I expected Sir Toby and Sir Andrew to be closer in age and also on a more equal playing field. I expected the two men to be closer in their acts of foolishness, not for Sir Andrew to be below Sir Toby in opinion of maturity. Regardless of my disinterest in the man who played Sir Toby, I thought Sir Andrew shined as he danced in his canary yellow attire!

Duke Orsino was a man I expected much more range in emotions from. In the beginning, he appeared to be saddened by his love for Olivia but in later scenes he looked complacent. I was extremely frustrated with the scene where Feste played music while Duke Orsino and Viola (as Cesario) nearly kissed, then as the music stopped Duke Orsino stormed out declaring his love for Olivia. This interpretation befuddled me because I felt that it was more natural than it should have been. Duke Orsino was not aware that Cesario was a woman pretending to be a man, so I guess I expected more tension between the two of them after that event. Also in the revealing of Viola as a woman, I expected more emotions from Duke whether it was betrayal, anger, or confusion, not pure happiness in thinking “Oh thank goodness, you’re a woman”!

Overall, I felt that the movie Twelfth Night stayed true to a greater majority of Shakespeare’s play Twelfth Night. There were a few discrepancies I saw, not only in the aspect of characterization but also in the transition of scenes/events. There were times I felt the scenes dragged on, never really concluding but rolling into the next event. The cross-cutting between Duke and Cesario playing chess to Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, and Maria plotting against Malvolio made the scene frustrating for me to watch because the scenes appeared to be choppy, giving the effect that something was missing. In conclusion, I did enjoy watching the film; but it would not be considered my favorite reproduction of the infamous play.