Of Human Bondage

     Jeebus Aytch Keeryst, it's hot today! The mercurial mercury, from languishing in the mid-teens earlier in the week, has vaulted into the thirties yesterday and today, leaving those of us in Southern Ontario utterly unacclimatized. Poor Jenny seems especially to be taking the heat hard, uncharacteristically napping the time away in seclusion rather than on the Doctor's bed. (Trouble, on the other hand, has been surprisingly sprightly.) Methinks we're a few degrees away from a Tennessee Williams play here. I'll leave it to your naughty, naughty imaginations to speculate as to whom Big Daddy might be.

      Watched yesterday the Pacino Merchant of Venice and was moderately impressed with the performances. Pacino, of whom I had expected the worst, was refreshingly restrained (by his standards, at least), though he continues as ever to rely on a lot of the same tics and mannerisms that have become his trademarks. The real discovery was Jeremy Irons, who managed to give Antonio a subtle nobility that few actors have been able to give the part. Unfortunately, the movie does the typically corrective re-rendering of the play that I find too apologetic by half. When the film opens with title cards explaining the plight of the Jews in Venice, one knows well in advance that the story will be redone against contemporary templates of ambiguity and irony, and so become the implied tragedy of Shylock. So, yes, the film is sensitive and nuanced-- and finally quite bloodless. In fact, the film alternates between being melancholic and phlegmatic, with predictably ponderous results. I remain convinced that we can't make nicey-nice with Shakespeare, nor with Merchant in particular, which I think needs to be treated in much the same ways that we currently treat Measure for Measure and All's Well That Ends Well, as dark comedies (and cynical allegories) in which none of the characters are especially admirable. Ultimately, I think we're more uncomfortable with Merchant than it is with us. What that means, I'll leave you to decide.