Paul Mazursky gathered an impressive acting ensemble for this modern reworking of Shakespeare's "The Tempest", with John Cassavetes feeling trapped by his career and his marriage and taking off for Greece, but direct inspiration from the Bard seems to have run dry early on, and the second-half of the picture is awfully dreary. Cassavetes is a questionable actor to put center-stage in a movie like this, one which depends on a light, fanciful touch if it's to work at all; dogged by a perpetual black cloud, Cassavetes doesn't sink into this character, and his furrowed brow and uncertain grimaces aren't interesting or attractive. As his mistress, short-haired Susan Sarandon is like a dangerous pixie, and Molly Ringwald gives the movie some joy as Cassavetes' daughter; Raul Julia has fun as a horny sheepherder, but Gena Rowlands has little to work with (the wife's arrival in the latter stages of the plot signals nothing but gloom up ahead). Although Mazursky initially seems in frisky spirits, he lets the contemplative nature of the material drag him into pretentious waters, and "Tempest" fades so fast it nearly evaporates off the screen. ** from ****
Review of Tempest
