Modernized ‘Measure for Measure’ passes muster
Why does everyone want to turn the Bard into Mario Puzo? OK, I’m exaggerating. But after the not-exactlymemorable “Men of Respect” a 1990 gangster film revision of Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” that was almost worth it to hear John Turturro utter the words “of mudder born,” I didn’t think anybody would want to go there again. But here is the gangster “Measure for Measure,” a modernization of the Vienna-set play by Shakespeare restaged in a modern time and mostly modern language.
The film opens with a shooting by an immigranthating junkie high on meth and the introduction of Stanley Weller aka “Duke” (Hugo Weaving), a weary crime boss in unnamed city Down Under, and the story’s star-crossed lovers Claudio (a Jon Snow-ish Harrison Gilbertson) and the hijabclad Jaiwara (Megan Smart).
Duke has his hands full with rogue, pseudo-son Angelo (Mark Leonard Winter), who has been selling the meth, which Duke forbids. Jaiwara is the sister of the city’s Muslim gang leader, Farouk (Fayssal Bazzi). When Duke goes “on vacation” and leaves Angelo in charge, Angelo starts to run amok, pumping more and more meth into the city, snorting a good portion of the drug himself, slugging bottles of Champagne and pressuring Jaiwara for sex after Farouk claps Claudio in jail when he learns Claudio is his sister’s lover.
Farouk and Jaiwara have a mother named Karima (Doris Younane), who takes in ironing(?), and a violent backstory. Due to an injury, Farouk is going blind. Angelo likes feeding the ducks at
a nearby lake. Duke has a particularly disturbing painting hanging on a wall in his house and is coughing up blood.
Now, get this. While Duke is on vacation, he and his bodyguard/sidekick Boyle (Gerald Lepkowski) watch most of the action on wireless security cameras, including one in a prison meeting room. Technology, right? Are we going to fade out on a puppy?
Directed and co-written by Scotland-born Paul Ireland (now there’s a split identity), “Measure for Measure” has its issues. Every five minutes a song will play over a new scene, something that got truly tiresome. People in the film clasp one another by the face too many times (it’s even in the poster), and Gilbertson and Winter both have the habit of pushing their dirty-looking hair out of their faces. They must have grown up at the feet of Guy Pearce.
Having said that, Weaving is a riveting performer even at half speed. Smart has something, and Daniel Henshall
is suitably sleazy as Angelo’s meth dealer. The Christian-Muslim love story and immigrant strife have resonance. When I wasn’t wondering what had become of Mistress Overdone, I was sufficiently caught up in this re-imagined story. (“Measure For Measure” contains violence.)