Movie Scene
'O' is wonderful reworking of Shakespeare's 'Othello'

By Marshall Fine
The (Westchester, N.Y.) Journal News

A jealous friend tries to create tension between Odin (Mekhi Phifer, left) and his girlfriend (Julia Stiles) through another student in "O," a modern motion picture version of Shakespeare's "Othello." Associated Press O Opens Friday, Aug. 31 Three stars. A compelling reworking of "Othello," set in a Southern prep school. This film echoes the gun violence in America's high schools in a thought-provoking and disturbing way. Starring Mekhi Phifer, Josh Hartnett, Julia Stiles. Directed by Tim Blake Nelson. Lions Gate Films. 91 minutes.

Yet this film by Tim Blake Nelson, which adapts Shakespeare's "Othello" to a contemporarySouthern prep school, is neither sensational nor disrespectful. Rather, this is a thoughtful, provocative new take on Shakespeare's story that goes right back to the source for its inspiration.

While have focused on the political subtext of this story — specifically, the issue of race — Nelson and writer Brad Kaaya place their emphasis where Shakespeare did: on the destructive nature of envy that pushes Iago to engineer Othello's destruction, and the equally negative power of jealousy that propels the insecure Othello to question his bride's fidelity to the point of murder.

In this version, Othello is a prep school basketball star named Odin James (Mekhi Phifer). He's the king of Palmetto Grove, a private academy whose basketball team he is leading to the state championship. The coach, Duke Goulding (Martin Sheen), even gives Odin preferential treatment over his own son, Hugo (Josh Hartnett), who is also on the team.

Hugo is jealous of Odin so he begins plotting against him. First he tries to ruin Odin's reputation by making public Odin's previously secret romantic relationship with the dean's daughter, Desi Brable (Julia Stiles).

The dean (John Heard) is furious but there's nothing he can do: His daughter is in love with his star basketball player. But even as Odin tries to reassure him that his intentions are pure, the dean plants a seed: If she could fool her own father, how hard would it be for her to deceive Odin at some point in the future?

Hugo decides to fertilize that seed and points out that teammate Mike Cascio (Andrew Keegan) seems to be getting might cozy with Odin's girl. His machinations closely follow Iago's plotting in Shakespeare's play, including the creation of physical evidence that Desi has been two-timing Odin.Kaaya and Blake don't ignore the sociological pressure on Odin that comes with being the only minority student at an all-white school. It serves as solid grounding for the character's blind spot toward Hugo: Odin is so accustomed to keeping his radar on for hints of racism that he has no defense against someone who actually envies him for who he is, someone for whom his color doesn't matter.

The echoes of the school shootings of recent years are chilling, in part because the acts depicted here have a terrible truthfulness, a sense of the sudden and arbitrary nature of gun violence. The film doesn't overlook the notion that committing a horrible crime is a way of attracting the attention the killer feels he's been denied by a society, which can ignore him no longer.

Phifer has a compelling presence and intelligence that make Odin an unfortunate figure. Hartnett, an interior actor, uses his remoteness as a tool, making this sociopath a slippery, deceptively seductive character. Stiles does what she can with the underwritten Desi.

"O" occasionally lets its Shakespearean roots show. Otherwise, Nelson finds contemporary touchstones all the way through, transforming this timeless story into an utterly up-to-the-minute tragedy.

Rated R for profanity, graphic violence, partial nudity, sexual content.