Here are the differences I saw between the film and the original play:
The odious Shylock, who in the original play has a family resemblance to both Othello’s Iago and The Tempest's Caliban, has been refashioned in this film as a tragic lead character reminiscent of King Lear. Any lines in the play that established Shylock’s sinister nature has been removed from the movie are one difference. For example when Shylock says,
“I hate him for he is a Christian;
But more for that in low simplicity
He lends out money gratis, and brings down
The rate of usance here with us in
If I can catch him once upon the hip,
I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him.
He hates our sacred nation, and he rails,
Even there where merchants most do congregate,
On me, my bargains, and my well-won thrift,
Which he calls interest. Cursed be my tribe,
If I forgive him!”
Without the missing text, the entire character of the scene is changed! Shylock now appears to be a righteous victim of Antonio's oppression, instead of a villain who is eventually caught by his own trap.
I also noticed the absence of most of the comparisons of Shylock to the Devil, which are frequent in the play's text.
Also erased was Portia's dismissal of the Prince of Morocco: "Let all of his complexion choose me so"--which might imply a hypersensitivity to any odor of racism, but if so was a foolish mistake. This reaction is the kind of poor decision, in the film, that zaps life from the play and masks Shakespeare's artistry. As Shylock's stock has risen in this film, the other characters have plummeted. Portia is one of Shakespeare’s most vibrant ladies, but the direction and pace leave actress Lynn Collins little to work with in portraying her. The film’s Portia is earnest but impotent. Jessica fares even more poorly: she is shown as stupid and promiscuous.
I get British humor; this is in no way a comical play/movie. I wouldn’t even categorize it as a tragedy. This movie just makes you want to scream and hit all the characters. They made me just mad. They acted as people would in high school, going around in a circle making a bigger disaster then need be. Yes, there is a woman dressed as a man and the Shylock gets what’s coming to him, and there is a FEW comical lines, it doesn’t make the entire play/movie funny.
I read the movie review by John Anderson, a top critic. I also read the review on the characters by a noted Shakespeare scholar William Hazlitt. What I found the most interesting about Mr. Anderson’s review was that he said, “As Shakespeare’s plays are divided into comedies, tragedies and histories, one really has to ask: What is ‘The Merchant of Venice’?” There was really nothing that was interesting to me about Mr. Hazlitt’s review, I basically agreed with everything he said.
