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 If Taming of the Shrew became an entertaining teen movie after a little modernization of plot and dialogue, then naturally we should be able to do the same thing with Othello, right? Wrong. The guys who made this irritant of a movie even went so far as to get Julia Stiles (late of 10 Things I Hate About You) to play “Desi.” But it just flat out doesn’t work. To begin with, the plot’s heavy reliance on basketball-related twists make the movie inaccessible to the non-jock audience. And worse, the interracial sex themes that might have been provocative even as late as ten years ago now seem at best trite and at worst downright mawkish. The final nail in the coffin is the juvenile sense of morality that pervades the entire show, particularly the kindergarten-level “just say no” drug references. Maybe if I hadn’t wanted this to be a better movie I would have been more tolerant of its faults. See if desperate

Genre: Drama

Subgenre: Shakespeare

Date reviewed: 11/13/2002