The Tempest
Touchstone Pictures | Release Date: December 10, 2010 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
43
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 28 Critic Reviews
Positive:
6
Mixed:
16
Negative:
6
Watch Now
Buy On

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
Portland OregonianShawn LevyDec 16, 2010
Although there is some gimmickry, this is one of the most straightforward versions of the Tempest ever filmed, making it edifying as well as -- when Taymor hits a groove -- dazzling. Read full review
75
MovielineMichelle OrangeDec 10, 2010
Veering between the windswept and the simply windy, The Tempest, I suspect, will provoke purists and only intermittently win the attention of less interested parties. Read full review
70
The New YorkerDavid DenbyDec 13, 2010
Taymor has played with Shakespeare's text -- switching genders, and inventing, dropping, and transposing passages -- but there's an emotional gain. [20 & 27 Dec. 2010, p. 146]
67
The A.V. ClubKeith PhippsDec 9, 2010
The best thing about Taymor's Tempest is also the worst: It's not stunning but it is sturdy, a handsome-enough showcase of a film that never really comes to life. It plays like a challenge politely declined. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumDec 8, 2010
Theatrically ambitious, musically busy, and in the end cinematically inert - clearly reflects the authorship of myth-loving director Julie Taymor. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertDec 15, 2010
She (Taymor) doesn't capture Shakespeare's tone (or his meaning, I believe), but she certainly has boldness in her reinvention. Read full review
60
EmpireDavid HughesMar 5, 2011
Taymor's winningly cast, imaginative take on Shakespeare passes the test of bringing the Bard to film. It may also be the only PG Disney film to contain the word "F---". Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyDec 16, 2010
Sad news for Bard watchers: Julie Taymor's adaptation of William Shakespeare's The Tempest is not such stuff as dreams are made on. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy BurrDec 16, 2010
A comparison to Baz Luhrmann is useful: Where Taymor self-consciously aestheticizes pop vulgarity, a movie like "Moulin Rouge!" just dives right in. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsDec 16, 2010
She tackled "The Tempest" on stage, years ago. On screen I wish she'd (Taymor) adapted it with a freer hand, and then directed it with a more considered one. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinDec 13, 2010
The drama is so muddled that Shakespeare seems to be getting in the way of Taymor's spectacle, the magic long gone by the time Prospera hurls her staff off into the sea. Read full review
50
SalonAndrew O'HehirDec 10, 2010
Her (Taymore) interpretations and interpolations range from brilliant to indifferent to extremely silly; as Taymor surely knows, there's nothing especially revolutionary in asking Helen Mirren to play the central role of Prospera. Read full review
50
NPRMark JenkinsDec 10, 2010
Despite dramatic Hawaiian locations, up-to-date visual effects and a bit of nontraditional casting, the movie feels not especially brave and far from new. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleDec 9, 2010
Not a mediocre film. It is, by turns, a great and awful film. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia PuigDec 9, 2010
The film simply doesn't come together fluidly. Smaller parts aren't on par with the lead role, and special effects are overdone and cheesy. At times, the essence of Shakespeare's poetry is drowned out. Read full review
50
VarietyLeslie FelperinDec 7, 2010
A Tempest so kitschy, yet curiously drab and banal. Read full review
50
Boxoffice MagazineJohn P. McCarthyDec 7, 2010
Compact if not cohesive, this is an Age of Aquarius-meets-"Mamma Mia"! distillation of The Tempest. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterDeborah YoungDec 7, 2010
Far less daring than her 1999 "Titus," which took an electrifying, stylized approach of a lesser-known play, The Tempest in comparison looks disappointingly middle-of-the-road. Read full review
42
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerDec 10, 2010
Normally I'd watch Helen Mirren in anything, even if she was just putting out the laundry or reading the phone book. But, given the roteness of her line readings here, it might have been better if the phone book rather than Shakespeare was her text. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyDec 11, 2010
In the face of The Tempest, the stormy tragicomedy of rage, romance and redemption that is among Shakespeare's last and greatest works, Julie Taymor, a filmmaking savant of extraordinary vision and voice, suddenly and surprisingly folds. Read full review
40
The New York TimesA.O. ScottDec 9, 2010
Ms. Taymor's overscaled sense of stage spectacle can be impressive and effective, even moving, but her three-dimensional, high-volume compositions translate awkwardly into the cosmos of cinema, which turns her pageantry into mummery and the physical exuberance she likes to draw from performers into mugging. Read full review
40
Village VoiceErnest HardyDec 7, 2010
The film lacks a pulse. There's sound and fury, but the result is more drizzle than tempest. Read full review
38
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanDec 16, 2010
Boasting a plot that's heavy on the magical shenanigans, this pretty and poetic adaptation of Shakespeare's play is a fantasia for the smart set, a literary novelty for anyone who wants to have fun without giving up food for thought. On that score, at least, it delivers, in spades. Read full review
38
Rolling StonePeter TraversDec 10, 2010
I found myself wishing that Taymor would turn off the sound and fury and let The Tempest speak for itself. My wish wasn't granted. Read full review
30
Chicago ReaderJ.R. JonesDec 16, 2010
For a filmmaker like Julie Taymor, Shakespeare's language isn't nearly as enticing as Prospero's violent manipulation of the elements, and this screen adaptation of the play-like her egregious Beatles movie "Across the Universe" (2007)-is primarily an exercise in eccentric (and, I would argue, empty) spectacle. Read full review
30
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierDec 10, 2010
Less the opulent retelling she (Taymor) intended and more like a high-minded midnight movie, filled with Ricky's-style costumes, black swans, sprites that flit across the screen and a cave filled with boiling beakers. Read full review
25
New York PostLou LumenickDec 10, 2010
A surprisingly unengaging and charmless fantasy from a director whose previous films ("Across the Universe," "Titus," "Frida") were, despite their other issues, never boring. Read full review
20
Time OutJoshua RothkopfDec 7, 2010
A tiresome mess that's completely bereft of a quiet moment in speech or manner, The Tempest aches for the wisdom of discipline. Read full review
More From This Movie

43 Critic Reviews

6.4 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 93 Nomadland
2 86 Judas and the Black Messiah
3 73 News of the World
4 72 Promising Young Woman
5 64 Pinocchio
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Instant Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
Best of 2018: Film Awards and Nominations
SEE ALL