A Midsummer Night's Dream

reviewed by Vivian Rose, age 14, from US

Some mischievous fairies wreak havoc on the love lives of several people who unwittingly stumble into a fairy love spell while walking in the woods one night. It seems the Lord fairy wanted to play a trick on the Lady fairy, his estranged wife (Michelle Pfeiffer). So he sends his silly fairy friend Puck to cast a love spell upon the Lady and another fairy. Puck puts the spell on a bumbling actor (Kevin Kline) by mistake.

He also casts love spells on two mixed up couples. Helena (Calista Flockhart) is in love with Demetrius, a man who wants nothing to do with her. He is in love with a woman who wants nothing to do with him, although her father is all for their marriage. She runs away with another man, and they end up in the forest. Helena chases Demetrius into the forest, begging him to let her follow him around like a dog (she actually uses that as an example - "Use me as you use your dog!", she pleads). Thanks to the fairies, they all eventually wind up in love with the right person.

Although I thought "A Midsummer Night's Dream" was delightful, I have to say that I liked the fairy characters better than the mortals. The fairies seemed cleverer and were much more fun to watch. However, even the mortal characters were amusing at times.

The only other complaint I have with this movie is the old Shakespearan-style language. At a few points, it was obvious that certain actors were concentrating so hard on remembering what to say and how to say it that they couldn't act convincingly. And listening to people talk in rhyme continuously became a little annoying. I can understand if the fairies talked in rhyme while saying a spell, but almost all the characters talk in rhyme almost all the time - oh no, now I'm doing it!

Still, my overall opinion of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" was very commendable, and I recommend it highly.

My rating: 3 stars