I'm all about Shakespeare. Have been since forever. So when my friend told me about this slightly skewed adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream, I was all for it. Fairies, lover's quarrels, Puck just in general screwing things up? It's basically and old fashioned Rom Com. Long story short, the main character finds a recipe for this magic love flower from the actual play, somehow makes it, and then uses it as a revenge tool for a town that has bullied him for being gay for forever (incidentally, or maybe on purpose, literally every relationship he makes with this magic lover flower ends up gay). Once you get passed that suspension of disbelief, concept wise I loved it. The idea of taking that one element of the original story and bringing it into the real world is amazing, and I find the havoc he wreaks with it more than amusing. The movie incorporated original lines of the play in too, while at the same time not over flooding the play with these sections or making areas hard to follow or difficult to understand. My problem with this movie? It's a musical. That alone isn't so bad, until you see the execution of it in the film. Some scenes are beautiful. When he sings in order to make the flower, it seems like a magical spell is cast over the whole film. But a lot of the singing sections are awkward. There's no real transition or reason to be singing, but suddenly we go from being alone, in an auditorium, auditioning, to weird ballet rugby players that some from nowhere and this overly dramatic lighting, meanwhile the main character went from simple school uniform to fairy wings, silver shorts, and elaborate eye makeup in two seconds flat with no real connecting context. Don't get me wrong, I think the plot of this movie is fair. While I'm not too fond of yet another gay bullying narrative, his accidental turned purposeful revenge plan is amusing. Not to mention anything involving Shakespeare automatically gets a thumbs up from me, especially modern adaptations or ones that re-envision a classic plot in a new way, as this did. As a ridiculous film, one to smile and laugh at this is a good choice. It's one of those films that originally was meant to be serious, but while watching it there's no way anyone could keep a straight face. But if you're intending to watch a serious or more realistic film, this is not it. There are too many ridiculous dance numbers and odd transitions for that.
Review of Were the World Mine
