The Merchant of Venice [DVD] [2004]

If you're completely without Cultcha and you don't know the plot, it's late 16th century Venice and the import-export merchant Antonio (Jeremy Irons) borrows 3,000 gold ducats from the Jewish moneylender Shylock (Al Pacino). The money goes to Antonio's chum Bassanio (Joseph Fiennes), who'll use it to impress and win the hand of the Babe of his dreams, the orphaned heiress Portia (Lynn Collins). But, Antonio suffers ruinous business setbacks and can't repay. So Shylock, remembering the public contempt shown to him by Antonio in the past and recently humiliated by the desertion of his only daughter to a Christian lover, insists that Antonio pay the penalty stipulated in the terms of the loan agreement, i.e. a pound of his own flesh, literally. And Shylock is prepared to go to the Duke's court to argue the legality of his case under existing Venetian statutes. Things look bleak and potentially painful for Antonio.

Filmed in Luxembourg and the decaying glory of Venice, THE MERCHANT OF VENICE is an extraordinarily lavish feast for the eyes. At times, as I found myself losing the thread of Shakespeare's flowery dialog, I found immense satisfaction in the production's glorious costuming and sets.

Pacino, who, in the past decade, has played cops, the Devil, a pro football coach, and a blind lecher, steals the show with an Oscar-worthy performance. He's perfect as the world-weary, embittered, vengeful loan shark literally and figuratively spat upon by the city's Christian majority. Indeed, the film's creators have done a superb job depicting a Jewish usurer's anachronistic social position in that time and place, i.e. both needed and despised at the same time. And Collins is a revelation as the clever and beautiful Portia, the one character in the piece with any brains compared to the hormone-driven and doltish males around her.

Besides the obvious lessons of the story, which are don't co-sign a loan with your best friend, don't play loose with your wedding ring, and always go for the cheaply wrapped gift box, I was left pondering the perceived anti-Semitism of the plot. Indeed, had the play not been written by Shakespeare, and thus considered a "classic", but rather something churned out by a Tinseltown hack and put on celluloid, the Political Correctness Police, regardless of the historical facts, would be howling about stereotyping to a degree that would perhaps dwarf the outcry over Mel Gibson's PASSION. The joyful prospect of that alone makes this a film worth seeing.

Director Michael Radford approaches the problem of Shylock (Al Pacino) by placing the character in context. This is accomplished by early making clear to us that the story takes place in "Venice, 1596." Although Shakespeare would not have announced this as the actors took their places on the stage of The Globe Theater, the movie's titles offer background about the marginal status and civic oppression of that city's Jewish population. Of course, just as in other parts of Europe, Venetian Jews were forced to practice usury because they were legally barred from most other ways of earning a living. In 1596, lending money at interest -- vital in the economy of the city-state and its merchants -- was something Christians wouldn't be caught dead doing. At the time, pimping and prostitution were considered much loftier occupations.

Still, none of this explains Shylock's character. Nor does it soften the taint of blood libel in Shakespeare's play. The only real choices for Radford were either to simply not to make "The Merchant of Venice" or to permit its uglier qualities to continue to complicate its wonderful rhetoric and brilliant examination of law, loyalty, the ethics of making promises -- and even issues of empathy, sympathy, and mercy. Redford decided to make the movie.

The movie has a bumpy beginning. Well of course, Shakespeare's 16th century dramas take longer in getting to the point than do 21st centiry movies. Today's audiences are used to having everything defined and in place after the first 10 minutes. But Radford, who wrote the screenplay, succeeds in making the story's complexities clear and vigorous. Too many modern productions of Shakespeare's plays push them into a contrived modern setting or chase after an irrelevant authenticity. But Radford [vitally aided by production designer Bruno Rubeo and the unbelievably talented cinematographer Benoît Delhomme] ingeniously bring us Shakespeare through the eyes of his artistic peers and contemporaries.

In this rendering of "The Merchant ...," Shylock's tragic grief is emphasized more than his predatory viciousness. His estrangement from the other characters makes sense because Shylock is, after all, an outsider who delivers much rougher verses than do his privileged, establishment Christian antagonists.

A depressed Antonio, the titled merchant, is quietly made to penetrate our consciousness by Joseph Fiennes, as his young friend Bassanio (whose courtship of Portia causes Antonio to mortgage his infamous pound of flesh to Shylock), speaks his lines beautifully. Fiennes is, nevertheless, upstaged by Kris Marshall, his feisty second, Gratiano, and also by Lynn Collins. She brings a radiant authority to her portrayal of Portia. Collins' charisma is vital for Radford in making his movie-play effective. Portia must convincingly both be a shrewd seductress and also an exacting ethicist. Her defeat of Shylock is among the great courtroom scenes in recent movies -- presented as an intense, emotionally boiling cauldron of cruelty and beauty. Like most of the rest of Radford's carefully creative interpretation of this impossible play, his Portia comes across with fresh dramatic intensity -- while her well lighted and photographed beauty are a banquet for our eyes.

Shakespeare's "Merchant" was trimmed by Radford to a manageable movie length and, for the most part, it is faithful in letter and spirit to the original play. Radford's 21st century version is exciting and completely entertaining -- and you won't want to miss it.