Al Pacino's Shylock is strong, intense, and powerful, yet he gets little support from the cast.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 23, 2019

I've decided to be merciful to Michael Radford's meat and-potatoes, 21st-century, politically correct, GCSE-student version of The Merchant of Venice.

| Dec 20, 2017

Lovely to look at, but like the famous caskets that Portia uses to test her suitors, its very beauty hides a weird core.

| Aug 24, 2017

Pacino seeks his pound of flesh as a tragic outsider.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 3, 2011

The text is wonderful, Radford's film has some fine performances from Jeremy Irons and Joseph Fiennes, and he makes good use of Venice locations.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 10, 2009

It is really a pleasure to watch a masterful actor like Al Pacino wring every nuance out of the multifarious character of Shylock.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 2, 2009

We see what an actor's actor Pacino can be: he's careful and watchful; respectful of other actors' timing; and says his lines perfectly, resisting all temptation to grandstand.

| Jun 12, 2009

A richly cinematic and robust rendition of Shakespeare's pre-political correctness play about the place of Jews in anti-Semitic 16th century Venice, Michael Radford's film takes delight in dramatics thus pulling us into the story.

| Jun 5, 2009

It has taken 5 years for Michael Radford's splendid interpretation of Shakespeare's play to come to Australia and it is worth the wait.

| Jun 5, 2009

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 7, 2008

Pacino is at least dynamic, something harder to say about the women in the cast.

| Jul 4, 2008

It's the perfect cinematic vehicle -- or at least it would have been, if Radford's adaptation weren't so unremittingly cloddish.

| Jul 4, 2008

Much credit is due to Radford for creating such a faithful, engrossing adaptation ... but when working with source material like this, it's a lot harder to go wrong.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 22, 2006

Pacino shapes the role masterfully. He not only rises to the role's extremes of villainous melodrama, he fills them, rendering them both theatrical and believable

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Oct 11, 2006

This is Al Pacino's show, and thankfully his Shylock is absorbing enough to carry the day.

| Jun 24, 2006

It veers from real conviction to panto, but Radford is clearly committed to the play's relevance, while Pacino, the Shakespeare addict, is a joy to watch.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 1, 2006

Manages to be a gripping and intriguing film.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Sep 30, 2005

It tilts so far in one direction that the comic elements seem to come from another, lesser film.

Full Review | Sep 26, 2005

The screenplay is lean and powerful and the direction deft.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 7, 2005

Finally, a filmatic spectacle worthy of the Scribe...

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jun 16, 2005