William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999)

Written & Directed by Michael Hoffman, based on the play by William Shakespeare
Starring Kevin Kline, Michelle Pfeiffer, Rupert Everett, Stanley Tucci, Calista Flockhart

My Advice: Don't Miss It.

When Duke Theseus (David Strathairn) is due to be wed to the lovely Hippolyta (Sophie Marceau), even faerie royalty shows up to make an appearance.  Oberon (Everett) and his estranged queen Titania (Pfeiffer) make an appearance, complete with the court jester, Robin Goodfellow (Tucci).  As part of his revenge for Titania's offending him, Oberon resolves to mix up her emotions with a horrid creature (Kline playing an actor, as horrid a creature as they come) and on the side muck with two couples (Flockhart, Anna Friel, Christian Bale, Dominic West) who are madly mixed up in love.

This film is truly a delight, and I've never seen Shakespeare adapted on the screen quite like this.  When we move from the "real world" to the forest inhabited by faeries, the costumes make an interesting change.  In the real world, the clothes look like...well, period clothing.  However, the faeries all wear what looks to be costumes more suited for the stage than the screen.  For example, Puck is obviously wearing some kind of shoes under his faux hooves.  The fairy wings are some kind of ornamental fabric, and not some bizarre Henson creation to look like they could actually be used.  Considering of course, that this was originally written for the stage, the contrast works and works well.

And what works even better is the ensemble cast.  Tucci makes an excellent prankster, Dominic West is a very strong Lysander, Calista Flockhart actually makes her annoying waif schtick work for her, and Kevin Kline is divine.  If there's a reason that this film rises above the comic tomfoolery, it's that Kevin Kline takes his character of Bottom and performs true magic with it.  In the moments that he doesn't speak, but simply stares off dreaming of what might be as opposed to the reality he has--that is acting to behold.  Amazing.  I would like to officially declare this the first Oscar-worthy acting performance of 1999, and to say that if the Best Supporting contenders crowd wasn't normally so just that--crowded--you could expect him there.

Beyond that, the final fifteen minutes or so of the film, in which the thespians perform the tragedy they have worked so hard to perfect, is some of the funniest on-screen time I have seen in ages.  Bad overacting has never been so good.  It's this last, coupled with Kline's performance, that put this over the top and make it a cinematic gem.