4/5 Pretty creative adaptation...
  by Andrew Raker (PA)

I do not usually comment on Shakespearean plays, yet because this adaptation of William Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" is set in the Victorian period, I thought I would comment.

1.
This adaptation contains good acting and more elaborate sets than any other adaptation of "Twelfth Night" I have ever seen. The picture quality is also good (considering this adaptation was produced for a wide-range of viewers rather than merely aficionados of William Shakespeare's plays).

2.
The adaptation is pretty loyal to the original play. Of course, there are some deviations such as when Malvolio rides a bicycle in pursuit of Cesario (which is entirely against Malvolio's personality, even when set in the Victorian period), not to mention that it is still a little early for the type of bicycle Malvolio rode.

3.
I thought the 'romantic' scenes were effective. Unlike some adaptations, this Cesario actually looks like she could be male (rather than a female actor dressed up). Of course, when Shakespeare plays were originally produced, male actors played the female parts.


Final thoughts:
I think this adaptation is worth watching. I enjoyed watching it. I especially thought Ben Kingley as Feste played his part well. (PS: Feste is given a larger role in this film adaptation than he would have been in an actual rendition of William Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night."

4/5 Nunn's Twelfth Night
  by Peter C. Morrison
Although I am a Shakespeare scholar, I am not what one might call a "purist". That is, I can enjoy film adaptations of Shakespeare's plays which do not include every word of the text, which rearrange lines and/or leave out dozens of lines at a time. Such an adaptation is Trevor Nunn's. He even includes Shakespeare-LIKE added dialogue at the beginning of the film along with scenes which Shakespeare did not write, since, unfortunately, Shakespeare did not have the advatage of cinema. A professor once told me that Shakespeare would have loved film, especially for Antony and Cleopatra, which jumps back and forth frequently between Alexandria and Rome. The same may be said of Twelfth Night, which "cuts" from various outdoor settings in Illyria to Orsino's dwelling to Olivia's house to Olivia's grounds. Trevor Nunn's adaptation takes full advantage of these cinemamatic advantages.

I have one quibble, however, and it is considerable. I know that actors in a film should not "declaim", in stagey deliveries of lines from plays, especially Shakespeare's. However, I do expect the speeches, however "naturally" they are delivered to be intelligible, at audible volume. Such, it seemed to me, is not always the case with Nunn's adaptation. Actors often mumble or practically whisper their lines (especially true of Helena Bonham Carter), and if I were not familiar with the play, I would have no idea of what they are saying. I find it disappointing that the director should not have noted this during the rushes (or whenever) and sharpened the delivery so that more of Shakespeare's irreplaceable lines could be distinctly heard and understood.

However, Trevor Nunn's film of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night is remarkably successful in most instances, and this is largely due to the perfect casting.

5/5 In the Whirligig of Time
  by Elva R. Stewart (Houston, TX USA)
Trevor Nunn's impeccably cast Twelfth Night does a stunning job of revealing the symbolism that saturates this play. Nunn's masterly tightening and interweaving of Shakespeare's scenes accentuates the symbols in the text while his cinematography makes haunting use of visual images that are the staples of Celtic legend. That earlier world's own metaphysical investment in the mystical union of opposites parallels Shakespeare's preoccupation with the double marriage. By merging these worlds and their symbols - the Shakespearean and the Celtic, the textual and the visual - so seamlessly together Nunn and his superlative team bring manna to starved souls.

5/5 Twelfth Night
  by Annie Parnell (Boulder, CO, USA)
Whether you are a lover of Shakespeare, or not, this is a fantastic presentation of a great comedy. The cast is superb--who would want to miss Ben Kingsley singing as he plays Feste the fool.

This is definitely a film for all ages, 12 and above. This is not because of content, but the language--it plays on words, and the younger ones would miss some of the fun.

5/5 The Best Shakespeare Movie
  by Robert Doyle (Phoenix, Arizona)
Trevor Nunn's version of Twelfth Night is the best cinematic rendition of any Shakespeare play. While Nunn makes liberal alterations in Shakespeare's word order and adds some non-Shakespearean text, he captures the humor, romance and poignancy of Twelfth Night. The cast is uniformly superb with Ben Kingsley as a fascinating choice for the role of the Fool and Helena Bonham Carter wonderfully subtle, humorous and endearing. The music is excellent and the settings beautiful. My only criticism is the lack of captioning which I find helpful in Shakespeare films on the first viewing (I had to turn to the written text which is a positive in any case and allowed me to see how Nunn put the film together). I've watched this film many times and enjoyed it every time.

Robert Doyle
Mesa, Arizona