O (2001)

Featured Audience Ratings

• Megan S

  
  As I watched this movie I remembered that I had seen it before, I hate it when that happens.

• Wahida K

  
  Nothing comes between two people's love, like one person's jealously.

• Conner R

  
  Actually a really great translation that didn't make a mockery of Shakespeare's work. Josh Harnett played a great Iago. It's interesting that this left more of a lasting impression on me that reading the play. Seeing all these things happen (especially when making the… More
  Actually a really great translation that didn't make a mockery of Shakespeare's work. Josh Harnett played a great Iago. It's interesting that this left more of a lasting impression on me that reading the play. Seeing all these things happen (especially when making the characters younger) really allows you to see the true sense of the meaning tragedy.

• EightThirty .

  
  It was cool until everybody died and the bad guy lived ^_^

• jd c

  
  Josh Hartnett is an evil fu*k in this, and he plays it well. This is a fascinating, and quite disturbing "teen" look at William Shakespeare's 'Othello'. It's deep, dark, and wicked...and also cruel at times. The performances are solid, and convincing. The… More
  Josh Hartnett is an evil fu*k in this, and he plays it well. This is a fascinating, and quite disturbing "teen" look at William Shakespeare's 'Othello'. It's deep, dark, and wicked...and also cruel at times. The performances are solid, and convincing. The script is unique and well thought out(the dialogue is not in typical Shakespearean style). The movie also flows at a great pace, and never falls flat. It always keeps you interested. Josh Hartnett almost comes off like the anti-Christ. His plans are malicious, down right evil, and destructive. He never shows signs of remorse or any feelings of gratification, even after he succeeds in destroying one's hopes and dreams. It makes you think if Josh Hartnett's character ever had a soul. Was he always this way? Or did something happen, some sort of horrible turning point in his life? But, we don't get any explanation. His jealousy and rage is the only thing that's on display here. And because of that, his character becomes even creepier. Simply not knowing the beginning of his cause leaves it to our imagination, which can be the scariest thing, and also seeing how fu*ked up he is, only the darkest of things can be the result. <img src="http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm89/JDHallowEEn/O2.jpg"> "All my life I always wanted to fly. I always wanted to live like a hawk. I know you're not supposed to be jealous of anything, but...to take flight, to soar above everything and everyone, now that's living." - Hugo(Josh Hartnett) .....Again...where did this jealousy, emptiness, and animosity really come from? Creepy, cause there are some others out there who really feel this way. Lives do get crushed in this movie...destroyed...and things do go to the point of no return. This is not a happy, feel good movie. It's a depressing and bitter film. And like I said before...it's quite disturbing. But I highly recommend it. "***1/2 So now here is ''O,'' a good film for most of the way, and then a powerful film at the end, when, in the traditional Shakespearean manner, all of the plot threads come together, the victims are killed, the survivors mourn, and life goes on. It is clearly established that Hugo is a psychopath, and that his allies are victims of that high school disease that encourages the unpopular to do anything in order to be accepted. Those who think this film will inspire events like Columbine should ask themselves how often audiences want to be like the despised villain." - Roger Ebert "**** Sensitive and vivid response to the tangled issues of teen violence, race and self-esteem." - Seattle Post-Intelligencer "***1/2 Exceptionally intelligent and powerful contemporary adaptation." - New York Post "*** Artful and emotionally compelling." - USA Today "***1/2 A sign of O's effectiveness is that it works regardless of whether you know Shakespeare's play." - Chicago Tribune "*** This is a serious and well-acted drama, not a jokey ripoff, whose relevance (however distant) to Columbine is a plus." - New York Daily News "*** To an astonishing degree, O gets the tragic Shakespeare mood, that somber stentorian passion born of hidden slivers of ambition and betrayal." - Entertainment Weekly "*** O has one advantage over "Othello" -- since it's a new movie, not a classic, it has the power to surprise." - San Francisco Chronicle "*** Essential to the success it manages is Hartnett's low-key, charismatic performance -- cool, withholding, compelling. The triumph of his insinuating Hugo/Iago is how plausible he is, how he manages to convincingly inject poison in so many minds without seeming to be trying." - Los Angeles Times <img src="http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm89/JDHallowEEn/O.jpg">

• Bannan i

  
  Nice rendition.

• Chris W

  
  A very powerful and extremely well-cast and well acted film. It is a modern take on Shakespeare's Othello, but, instead of doing it word for word, the main themes and feelings are translated on the screen, making for a better film than what it would have been if it had been a… More
  A very powerful and extremely well-cast and well acted film. It is a modern take on Shakespeare's Othello, but, instead of doing it word for word, the main themes and feelings are translated on the screen, making for a better film than what it would have been if it had been a straight adaptation.

• Jason S

  
  I thought it was good but there were a couple scenes that made me uncomfortable. It has a really good cast though.

• Daniel J D

  
  This movie isn't as praised or well-loved as it should be... for what it accomplishes. It truly modernizes Othello... Perhaps, it's just not the typical teen romp its intended audience was expecting.

• Alice S

  
  OTHELLO!!! Hartnett is INTENSE as Hugo/Iago. Stiles was lackluster except for the nonconsensual sex scene.

• danny d

  
  sort of corny but decent

• Nate Z

  
  [font=Arial][color=darkred]"I did what I did and that is all you know. From here on out I say nothing."[/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=darkred]The story behind 'O' has become more infamous than the film itself. The film has had twelve different release dates… More
  [font=Arial][color=darkred]"I did what I did and that is all you know. From here on out I say nothing."[/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=darkred]The story behind 'O' has become more infamous than the film itself. The film has had twelve different release dates and was actually finished in 1999. It had the dubious nature of having the themes of jealousy and violence set in high school around the time Columbine had polarized the nation. Miramax subsequently kept pushing the film back until it finally jettisoned it over to Lions Gate films, the same people who rescued 'Dogma' when Miramax felt it was too hot to handle for corporate parent Disney. Finally now 'O' is getting the release it has waited for.[/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=darkred]'O' is the modern update of Othello but is by no means in the same brethren of the bubbly Shakespeare ripped teen comedies proliferating the screen big and small. 'O' is a serious tale told with earnestness in its portrayal, and with its conviction and refusal for exploitation, executes the best modern day transition of Shakespeare to date. What better setting for lust, jealousy, love, betrayal, murder and tragedy than a high school? It is almost chilling how well the tale translates to the high school setting, particularly with the notices of race and jealousy.[/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=darkred]Odin James (Mekhi Phifer) is the only black student at an all white prep school in Charleston, South Carolina. Odin is the senior leader of the school's basketball team and an all-star in the making. Odin, or "O" as the crowd chants at games, is dating Desi (Julia Stiles), the daughter of the dean. She's a spitfire but they love one another with great intensity. Everything seems to be going well for Odin with school, his relationship, and his team entering into the state playoffs. His coach (Martin Sheen) proclaims his love for Odin like a son at a pep rally with the denizens in the stands cheering along. Everyone appears to be cheering for their popular hero, except for Hugo (Josh Hartnett).[/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=darkred]Hugo is the coach's son and perennially looked over on the basketball team. He looks at Odin and is fueled with jealousy for the admiration and love his father would rather bestow on him than his own son. Dinner at home is a more a cold silence than a family activity. Hugo is jealous of all the things Odin has that he cannot have and some that he will never have. So he sets forth in motion a plan to bring the downfall of the popular kids he despises. Hugo enlists the aid of gullible Roger (Elden Henson, the large kid from 'The Mighty') who's picked on heavily from the same people Hugo wishes to topple. Hugo coaxes Mike (Andrew Keegan), ousted form the basketball team after a staged fight with Roger, that the best way to regain the good will of Odin and his father is to cozy up to Desi and convince her. He then plants the seeds of doubt in Odin with Desi. He draws Desi's roommate Emily (Rain Phoenix) into the scheme by seducing her into stealing a rare handkerchief that Odin had given Desi as a show of love and commitment.[/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=darkred]With every pawn somehow moving in the directions Hugo wishes the jealousy boils, love turns to heartbreak, and the game ultimately ends violently. It isn't called "tragedy" for nothing folks.[/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=darkred]Othello is, at its heart, the tale of a villain and his masterminding. The center figure is not on our hapless Moor or his lovely Desdemona, but on the treacherous Iago as he plots the tragedy of those around him with woeful precision. Shakespeare's Othello has quite possibly the greatest villain in all of literature with Iago. He is a man who positions an elaborate staging of jealousy, insecurity, mistrust, and ultimately murder - and all this time he is given center stage to propel his masterwork. And it's exciting, giving genuine evil a face, a name, and more importantly than anything else, a vicious intelligence to play out. This is why Othello transcends its problems in story staging and character turning points, because it is a tale told from the hands of its most essential leg: the villain.[/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=darkred]Hartnett takes the reigns of the picture and gallops with them with great care. Though shot and filmed years before many of his latest pictures, 'O' shows Hartnett in his most methodical and enticing acting turn. He portrays Hugo smoothly giving equal shades of bitterness and envy with his sullen performance. Harnett is so invigorating as the villain that one almost sides with him, but that is the attraction of evil. 'O' decides to pump more motivation for its villain than Shakespeare had included, and it works in a startlingly believable way. A student plotting the demise of a more popular and athletic student and seeking the love of an inattentive father - maybe this is why Miramax shelved it for two years. The motivation in this setting is totally believable to a chilling point.[/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=darkred]Phifer is a charming presence and reflects the descent of Odin with good emotion. One can feel the rage just resonating from him during a slam dunk contest which he brings down the backboard and sternly glares at Desi in the stands. His final declaration with all the chaos that has swarmed around him is almost heart breaking. Stiles, on the other hand, is not given too much to work with but seems to make decent use out of her part. Sheen blusters about like the spawn of Bobby Knight, but shows a more frightening side in his ambivalent relationship to his son.[/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=darkred]'O' is deftly directed by Tim Blake Nelson who might be more well known as the "other" chain gang member in 'O Brother where Art Thou?' Nelson periodically adds little touches of great artistic exchanges that elevate 'O' into something more than another teen film. It even achieves a certain level of poignancy and power as Hartnett is led away and speaking reflective about his deeds to the audience. The script from debut screenwriter Brad Kaaya drops Shakespeare's prose but for the best. The film has a greater sense of realism and authenticity when the main characters aren't talking in iambic pentameter.[/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=darkred]The film isn't perfect by certain means. Hugo's plot seems a tad too elaborate and easily achieved, and Odin seems to fall for some questionable pieces of doubt. I mean, what else will an old hanky be used for in a modern film? But these faults can be blamed on Shakespeare as much as the principals involved behind the film. Despite these minor stumbles 'O' is indeed a great film that deserves to be seen and thought over afterwards.[/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=darkred]Nate's Grade: B+[/color][/font]

• Deb S

  
  The film takes place in an elite private school where Mehki Phifer portrays Odin James, the only African American student at the school and star basketball player who has everything going for him including the dean's (played by John Heard) daughter as his girlfriend, Desi (Julia… More
  The film takes place in an elite private school where Mehki Phifer portrays Odin James, the only African American student at the school and star basketball player who has everything going for him including the dean's (played by John Heard) daughter as his girlfriend, Desi (Julia Stiles) until his 'friend' Josh Hartnett (an absolutely chilling Hugo) is overcome with envy and fuelled by jealousy because his basketball coach father (Martin Sheen) seems to pay more attention to Odin than Hugo. He resents being ignored and begins to plot what to do to get back at Odin devoting his time and energy into destroying him. The theme of revenge, love and jealousy remains intact but the settings have been changed to fit the 21st century better. O explores the origins of school violence and how teen angst can lead to tragedy. Be ready for a gut wrenching finale.

• Joseph E

  
  I just felt this film was amazing and i just think you all should watch it! Hope you can give a more fuller review, as I just am to shocked and speechless by it.

• Yinalí R

  
  I think it's a crappy remake of the original "Othello"

• Daniel P

  
  Pretty risible really - a modern day updating of Shakespeare's Othello that fails to make any kind of impact, <i>O</i> features drippy, unlikeable performances (Mekhi Phifer aside, who is excellent), terrible dialogue, increasingly hard to swallow coincidences and… More
  Pretty risible really - a modern day updating of Shakespeare's Othello that fails to make any kind of impact, <i>O</i> features drippy, unlikeable performances (Mekhi Phifer aside, who is excellent), terrible dialogue, increasingly hard to swallow coincidences and scenes that go on far too long. There's no tragedy here, just unintentional comedy. And the classroom 'Shakespeare' scene is utter wank; psuedo-irony towelled on without any skill. Terrible.

• Sunil J

  
  One of the best of the Shakespearean retellings. Some really great performances by young actors.

• Sarah B

  
  Not the best modern reimagining of Shakespeare, but interesting nonetheless.

• Chad R

  
  OH MY GOD I bet chicks liked this but I thought it sucked balls

Read all 19 featured audience ratings