Dispensing with tableau compositions, this adaptation feels liberated from static theatrical and, to a lesser degree, cinematic convention by the overall openness of its staging and camerawork that's somewhere between handheld and Steadicam.

The film has plenty of detractors who see Taymor's approach as strained and overwrought, but Mirren finds some grace notes that no Prospero could ever have sounded.

The special effects are intrusive and anything but magical and the text is rather curiously edited. But it's worth seeing for Mirren.

... something about The Tempest just didn't work for me. When I see Taymor's name on a film I'm expecting something grand and beautifully fantastic, and this just fell a little flat.