The Tempest

The Tempest is Julie Taymor's adaptation of William Shakespeare's play, in which the sorcerer Prospero becomes Prospera, ruler of Milan, exiled to a strange island with her young daughter Miranda. Prospera commands magic and the spirits of the island, and she uses that power to bring the ship carrying her old enemies to her shores, where she sets trials before them. Her plan grows complicated when Miranda and the shipwrecked prince Ferdinand fall for each other.

Helen Mirren leads the cast as Prospera, with Felicity Jones as Miranda, Reeve Carney as Ferdinand, David Strathairn as King Alonso, Tom Conti as Gonzalo and Alan Cumming as Sebastian. Taymor wrote the screenplay and produced alongside Robert Chartoff and Lynn Hendee. The film follows Titus, Frida and Across the Universe in her directing career, the fourth of the five features listed for her, and was made for about 20 million dollars across British, Indian and American production.

Reactions were muted. On IMDb the rating stands at 5.3 from roughly 8,500 votes, and on TMDB it is also 5.3, from a much smaller base of 138 votes. A critics' rating of 4.7 from 88 reviews places professional response slightly below the audience scores. The film runs 111 minutes and blends comedy, drama and fantasy.