A Midwinter's Tale

Starring an ensemble cast, A Midwinter's Tale is the story of one man's obsession to bring culture to the impoverished country folk by putting on a production of Shakespeare's Hamlet at Christmastime. However, he has insufficient funds to put on the production and his no good actors want to work during the holidays. So he gathers a cast of misfits and no-talents about him to "do" Hamlet.

This is a movie for adults, an "intellectual" sort of comedy. The dialogue and the scripting is fantastic, with cute touches such as a "queen" to play the Queen, internal bickering between the actors, and the way some lines are added to and even modified at times. "Tis a far, far better thing I do than I did that night with the sailor and the artichoke." Unfortunately, this movie is not in wide release, which makes it difficult to find; most will have to wait until its release on video.

Academy Award nominations to the cast and to scriptwriter Kenneth Branagh for such lines as: "More Russian than fox;" "Or my middle name isn't Fabulously Talented and Modest;" and, "Hello, kids. Stop watching Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and come see a 400-year-old play about a depressed aristocrat."

-David Appleton

© 1998

One Controls Dr
Shelton CT 06484 USA
(800) 232-2224 voice
(800) 775-2729 fax
LadyJanet@RenaissanceMagazine.com