A brief recap of the plot, for those who napped during high school English Lit: A shipwreck off the coast of Illyria causes the separation of twins, Viola (Imogen Stubbs) and Sebastian (Stephen Macintosh) who now each believe the other to have drowned in the violent storm. Once on shore, Viola disguises herself as a boy named Cesario and finds employ with Orsino, the Duke of Illyria (Toby Stephens). A local noblewoman named Olivia (Helena Bonham Carter), having recently lost her father and brother has decided to enter into a seven-year period of mourning, repeatedly rejects the advances of the lovesick Duke. Cesario becomes go-between in this unrequited affair while simultaneously becoming more intimately attached to each of the parties in separate ways. Sebastian also eventually appears on the scene and, complicating matters even further, is constantly mistaken for Cesario.
The film was mounted by Trevor Nunn, for 20 years a mainstay of the Royal Shakespeare Company. He brings to the material a fresh perspective that puts the comedic events in the late Victorian-era, a choice that makes the story more contemporary without forcing the effort. Nunn's best contributions come in the casting department. There is real chemistry between Imogene Stubbs and Helena Bonham Carter (whose film debut was in Nunn's Lady Jane in 1986). Bonham Carter obeys the cardinal rule of comedy by playing it straight, thus making hers one of the funniest performances in the film as she straddles the thin line between romance and comedy. The exemplary supporting work is dominated by Ben Kingsley and Nigel Hawthorne. Kingsley plays the troubadour Feste, while Hawthorne (who played the title role in The Madness of King George) is the stuffy, snobby, love-sick Malvolio, Olivia's chief of staff, who convinces himself Olivia loves him. Swollen with his self-importance, proud that he is impervious to the failings of mortals, he falls hard in typically Shakespearean fashion. It is the genius of Billy Bob Shakespeare that we feel pity for Malvolio, even though he plays the only real bad guy in the story. But the movie's key player is Imogene Stubbs, who was Emma Thompson's rival in the 1995 Sense and Sensibility. While the knowledge that Stubbs is actually a woman is never too far from her performance, Stubbs channels the comedy not through any suspension of our own disbelief, but the absurdity of the need to suspend our disbelief. In other words, why try to convince you the lead character is a man when it's obvious she's a she?
Filmed on National Trust properties in Cornwall--at Lanhydrock House, Prideaux Place, St. Michael's Mount, Cothele, Trebarwith Strand, Trerice, Mount Edgecumbe and Bedruthen Steps--the sumptuous locations help to capture the Celtic magic of this version of the tale which is dressed in the styles of the 1890's. The rich production design by Sophie Becher lends a great deal to the film, as does the vivid photography by Clive Tickner and costumes by John Bright.
Twelfth Night is easily one of the best Shakespeare adaptations put to screen, and would be an easy choice to introduce some willing high schooler to the world of Shakespeare.
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by Scott McGee
