tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-675546833451003934.post7204917042789366880..comments2023-09-15T13:18:52.031+01:00Comments on There Ought To Be Clowns: DVD Review: A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999)Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02215804811450960599noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-675546833451003934.post-67168950762847000592016-10-02T15:38:30.081+01:002016-10-02T15:38:30.081+01:00I think this is a very beautiful and entertaining ...I think this is a very beautiful and entertaining version of the play and provides one of the only times where I find the mechanicals endearing and truly amusing, rather than just irritating. Sam Rockwell's Francis Flute is, as you say, inspired and Kevin Kline, to my mind, is outstanding as Bottom. We see his enthusiasm and over the top nature, yes, but he is also wistful and melancholy behind the clown façade and this makes him lovable and vulnerable. People criticise David Strathairn as the Duke because he appears weak and under the thumb of bride-to-be Hippolyta, but Strathairn is a quietly intense, scene stealing actor and I'm sure his reticence is simply part of the director's overall plan to make all the men in this romantic, fantastical comedy seem victims of passion and under the spell of one woman or another.LadyHuggyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08251801399402193737noreply@blogger.com