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

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

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

| Jul 4, 2008

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

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

Full Review | Sep 26, 2005

This rendition is hardly a freshman course.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Apr 21, 2005

Radford has rendered off the comedy to find the dramatic skeleton underneath. It is an approach that works stunningly well and is perhaps the only way the play can now be done.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Mar 10, 2005

Pacino's stentorian delivery and punctuating hands are almost parodistic, as likely to draw a chuckle as to elicit empathy.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Feb 18, 2005

Radford remains fairly reverent toward the text and the intent.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 18, 2005

Radford's gloomy film is a long and slightly draining haul, but the intensity of Al Pacino's central performance justifies the effort required.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 15, 2005

Ranks as one of the most powerful recent adaptations of the bard's work.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Feb 4, 2005

Balanced, beguiling -- even funny.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Feb 4, 2005

The give-and-take between the two veterans [Pacino and Irons] is a delight to witness.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 3, 2005

For lovers of the play's language ... the losses will hurt. But as cinematic storytelling, it works.

| Jan 28, 2005

[Al Pacino's] terrific to watch and listen to; you can't take your eyes off him.

| Jan 27, 2005

The Merchant of Venice is a problematic play, but Michael Radford's new movie version passes most of the cinematic Shakespeare tests with flying colors.

| Original Score: B+ | Jan 27, 2005

In what is, unbelievably, the first English-language film of Merchant since the silent era, Collins and Pacino plumb the depths of acting, of Shakespeare, of the difference between law and justice.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jan 27, 2005

Beauty and ugliness mingle in this play, with the beauty of language ultimately triumphing.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 21, 2005

Were it not for the stain of anti-Semitism that forever marks Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, there is little doubt that Michael Radford's brave screen adaptation would currently be in serious contention for awards.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jan 21, 2005