The Merchant of Venice

Directed by Michael Radford

Al Pacino's version of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice offers an interpretation that turns this great play from acknowledged art into history. With director Michael Radford (the not-bad 1984), Pacino assesses all the play's contentious controversies but sets it up in a Joe Papp, multiculti world recognizing bigotry throughout history and showing its many forms (racial, religious, sexual). This Merchant teems with race, religion and sexuality-from the aggrieved moneylender Shylock, to a gay Antonio and finally Portia, who is chattel, catalyst and the play's devious moral fulcrum.

Scholars designate Merchant as "high comedy"; its complexity suits/corrects our cynicism. 2004's cultural issues resound in Balthazar's greed, Shylock's grievance, Antonio's egotism and Portia's privilege. Radford repeats the grim look of his 1984, trying to disguise that we're watching Shakespeare. But we go for the language, the breathtaking clarity. Pacino's amazing emphasis on Shylock's deep anger and Lynn Collins' significantly poised delivery of Portia's appeal to Christian grace, sum up this year's movie controversies.