I had to watch it in conjunction with reading the play for a class I had in Shakespeare last summer. It was a very good adaptation and almost all of the play material was in it in actual verse rather than edited and chopped up drastically like plays sometimes get.

Jeremy Irons played a very good Antonio and Joseph Fiennes was a superb Bassanio. Lynn Collins as Portia and Kris Marshall as Gratiano were also excellent casting choices. And Al frigging Pacino as Shylock was like a cherry on the top. Seriously. When I first saw Al Pacino in it I thought, "Come on, all that guy can play is a tough NYC cop or a gangster." I was extremely surprised at the flavor and life he brought to the character of Shylock.

The camera work was top notch, the screenplay was written extremely well and the interaction between characters was superb; each embodied their given role (supporting cast included) to the utmost and put on one hell of a performance.


I also watched Zeferelli's Romeo and Juliet (196 and his Hamlet (1990) for the class. Both were good but each also had a lot of editing done so they didn't follow the play as closely as the Merchant of Venice did.