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8.6

based on 26 reviews
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based on 9 votes
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MPAA RATING: R for violence, a scene of strong sexuality, language and drug use

Starring Mekhi Phifer, Josh Hartnett, Julia Stiles, Elden Henson, Andrew Keegan, Rain Phoenix, John Heard, and Martin Sheen

A contemporary retelling of "Othello," Shakespeare's timeless tale of treachery and jealousy, set in an elite private school located deep in the American South. (Lions Gate Films)

GENRE(S):	Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Brad Kaaya William Shakespeare (play Othello)
DIRECTED BY:	Tim Blake Nelson
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: February 19, 2002 Video: February 19, 2002 Theatrical: August 31, 2001
RUNNING TIME:	91 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

Sensitive and vivid response to the tangled issues of teen violence, race and self-esteem.

Chicago Tribune Mark Caro

A sign of O's effectiveness is that it works regardless of whether you know Shakespeare's play.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Exceptionally intelligent and powerful contemporary adaptation.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

To an astonishing degree, O gets the tragic Shakespeare mood, that somber stentorian passion born of hidden slivers of ambition and betrayal.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

This is a serious and well-acted drama, not a jokey ripoff, whose relevance (however distant) to Columbine is a plus.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

A good film for most of the way, and then a powerful film at the end, when, in the traditional Shakespearean manner, all of the plot threads come together, the victims are killed, the survivors mourn, and life goes on.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Artful and emotionally compelling.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

O has one advantage over "Othello" -- since it's a new movie, not a classic, it has the power to surprise.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

The filmmakers have a vision of the way Shakespeare can be made vibrant and vital to modern viewers, with or without the lofty original dialogue.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Essential to the success it manages is Hartnett's low-key, charismatic performance -- cool, withholding, compelling. The triumph of his insinuating Hugo/Iago is how plausible he is, how he manages to convincingly inject poison in so many minds without seeming to be trying.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Stripped of its poetry, some of the devices of the tragedy of the Moor come off here as woefully contrived.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

What O lacks is a sense of spontaneity: Despite its contemporary dialogue and manner, the movie can't overcome a nagging aura of artifice.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

The film collapses under the weight of the effort to shoehorn Shakespeare's story into a context that ultimately doesn't accommodate it.

TV Guide Ken Fox

Every character fated to die in Othello meets his or her maker by the time the curtain falls on Blake's adaptation, which means the manicured campus of Palmetto Grove is left littered with slain coeds.

Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard

Too much of a locker-room melodrama to make for great tragedy.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

A fairly ordinary drama about young love, basketball, petty jealousy and high school politics. The movie also has one of the goofiest, over-the-top finales in recent memory.

New Times (L.A.) Luke Y. Thompson

The film generally looks like a TV special, with low production values and lots of closeups.

Washington Post Rita Kempley

Everything has been modernized except for the characters, and that's this movie's tragic flaw.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

This turgid melodrama fast-breaks away from the heart of its own subject.

Time Richard Schickel

On your already groaning Shakespeare for Teens video shelf, stack this one above "10 Things I Hate About You" (a.k.a. "The Taming of the Shrew") and quite a bit below "Romeo + Juliet."

Newsweek David Ansen

The actors attack their roles with commitment (Hartnett’s understatement is impressive), but their fervor can’t hide the movie’s implausible, often confusing storytelling.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

In trying to make "Othello" more lifelike and bring it down to a younger audience -- in effect, to make it more democratic -- the adaptation has rendered the material artless.

Village Voice Amy Taubin

Had Nelson and Kaaya been less concerned with following Othello to the letter and rather had pursued this love affair into uncharted cinematic waters, O might have been more than an unresolved mixture of gimmickry and good intentions.

Salon.com Charles Taylor

The film is a plodding, earnest adaptation that strips the source of its richness and ambiguity.

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

It's a doomy dirge of a movie, in which the protagonists, or at least the actors who play them, aren't equipped to handle their outsize passions.

LA Weekly Manohla Dargis

The makers of this malnourished teen drama haven't just dropped six letters from the title of Shakespeare's Othello, they have excised everything that gives the original its troubling power -- principally a point but also furious passion.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.6 (out of 10) based on 9 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

DeQuila H. gave it a9:
I loved this movie. It captured Shakespear's thoughts and feelings in a perfect way. This movie helped mw to understand the complex words of Shakespeare. I loved it!!!!!

Beth W. gave it a 10:
Great Movie !!!

Duncan E. gave it a 9:
Pretty darned good adaptation of the classic play. Amost as good as "Internal Affairs." The true test of how good an Othello adaptation is is just how upset you get with the Iago character. Richard Gere was more despicable.

You Call Me...Robocop! I Mean, Mulroneycakes gave it a 7:
One of Wild Bill's best plays (I should know, I had to study the bastard) done no small amount of justice. British TV did a better one with Kareem Said, but this one's worth a shout.

Michael F. gave it an 8:
This is a very powerful film. Filled with great performances and a solid script. Great issues are shown in this film so well. Tim Blake Nelson has done such a good job. A good film for children to see.

Narguess A. gave it an 8:
I really enjoyed the movie because it showed a lot of the problems teens can go though such as jealousy, sex, drugs, drinking, and lying. Granted it was a bit extravagant or gruesome at the end, that's Shakespeare. I thought that it was a little awkward for the movie to take place in high school, but I thought it was great nontheless.

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Lions Gate Films Inc.