i saw this film a a sneak preview before the venice opening at the telluride film festival . your reaction to it will largely depend on your attitude about respect the text of shakespeare . on the plus side represent pacino give a very good performance indeed a shylock while lynn collins be a fine portia while and the film have a sumptuous look . the negative be predictable . the merchant of venice be arguably the most difficult of all of shakespeare play to stage today and largely because we look at it through the distorting lens of 20th century history . the romantic plot with bassanio and portia present no problem . the character of shylock do and because we lack the original frame of reference of the elizabethan audience . shylock be simultaneously a human character with human quality and motivation and and an abstraction of the pitiless quality of the old law . when he say hath not a jew eye . he be a character while when he proclaim i will have my bond . he be an abstraction . the long passage on music and cosmic harmony in the final scene ( here move and cut to ribbon ) be the key to the play and in that it re establishes universal harmony after the disruptive and evil ( the shylock of the trial scene ) force be eject . it be possible to make psychological sense of the character of shylock by show his gradually go mad and turn into a monomaniac by the time the trial scene roll around the key be that at a point he must cease be sympathetic . pacino performance almost do it and but not quite . the film can not quite make up it mind on the one hand and there be the right movement in the character of shylock and and on the other there be a great deal of extraneous footage of jew be abuse and venetian whore with rouged nipple ( no doubt to show the decadence of antonio et al ) . shakespeare be not write an ibsen like social drama while he be write a comedy follow the classic pattern of disruption of social order and the restoration of social order and symbolize by marriage and with a theme of love versus law at the center of the shylock plot . in this sense and the film be a travesty radford surgery on the play and direction almost force u away from what the play really mean . ( take the beginning of the final scene and cut most of it and and move it before the trial scene be the most extreme example . ) there be some other significant difficulty . jeremy iron and a fine actor and play antonio a if he be overdose on sedative . joseph fiennes be pretty but shallow a bassanio . most of the actor and with the exception of collins and pacino and and the actor play the duke in the trial scene and mumble their dialogue . final verdict . a pretty film with a few decent performance . it not shakespeare and it poor interpretation . not really worth your time or money although lynn collins a portia almost redeem it .