By ROBERT KOEHLER
The familiar, classic verities of the prison break movie are loyally observed in "The Escapist," but with a catch: The break starts at the beginning. Made with solid, mainstream values by tyro director Rupert Wyatt (who co-wrote with Daniel Hardy) and starring such reliable thesps as Brian Cox and Damian Lewis, the pic's one genre innovation is to continually wind forward to the escape itself, and wind back to events in Blighty prison prior to flight. What will strike some as an overplayed device will excite others, pointing to promising returns for the U.K. April release and U.S. distrib interest.
A motley crew of prisoners is seen frantically trying to break a hole in the ground, and then quickly drop through below. Last to make it down the hole following Lenny (Joseph Fiennes), Brodie (Liam Cunningham), Viv Batista (Seu Jorge) and newbie inmate Lacey (Dominic Cooper) is aging lifer Frank (Cox).

Action flashes back to recent past, in which youngish Lacey, convicted of a white-collar crime, enters the huge prison block.

As in HBO's far more violent and charged "Oz," prison life is tribal, but with individuals who've carved out special niches. Frank, Lacey's cellmate, is somewhat allied with "The Screws," while cold, heartless Rizza (Lewis) heads "The Cons" with a brutal hand. At first appearing to be a Cons ally, Viv is actually a free player of sorts, secretly concocting drugs.

Frank receives a letter from his wife saying their 20-year-old daughter is suffering from drug addiction; to be by her side after 14 years in prison, he's determined to escape. He carefully assembles his crew, with Lacey -- the object of evil desires by Rizza's despicable brother Tony (Steven Mackintosh) -- an unexpected addition.

The train of situations and relationships is steadily interrupted with the escape itself -- or perhaps it's the other way around -- until the pace of the pic's second half (and particularly the final 30 minutes) rapidly flashes back and forth to a crescendo of emotions that had been previously suppressed.

The effect of being in the midst of the breakout is bracing at first, but soon settles into a routine made somewhat annoying by composer Benjamin Wallfisch's repetitive jolting cues during cuts in time sequence.

Fracturing the aud's notion of time is the film's one modernist ploy, resulting in the experience of the escape as a monumentally Sisyphean task. Production designer Jim Furlong and cinematographer Philipp Blaubach conspire to create a horrific chain of industrial tunnels and chambers through which the crew flee, while the prison is designed as a kind of ghoulish horseshoe-shaped opera house.

While few of these characters rise above type -- and some, like Fiennes' mysteriously near-silent Lenny, not even to that level -- Cox calmly registers ranges of steely determination, fatherly care and regret-filled sadness with great authority.

As usual during screenings in Sundance's large Eccles Theater (a high school auditorium ill-equipped as a cinema), sound was muffled to the point that whole dialogue exchanges were inaudible.

Sundance Review: The Escapist

January 23, 2008
by Alex Billington

When it comes to movies about escaping from prison, Escape from Alcatraz from 1979 with Clint Eastwood takes the cake and nothing else comes close. That movie has been my absolute favorite prison escape flick for all my life, but the time has come for something else to take its place. The Escapist is what I would call a modernized, updated reinterpretation of Escape from Alcatraz with a much better soundtrack, more intense storyline, more vivid characters, and more stunning visuals - and it's set not even remotely close to Alcatraz. I was completely blown away by The Escapist, in all aspects, and I'm still recovering from how amazing it was.

The Escapist is about inmate Frank Perry (Brian Cox) who is twelve years into a life sentence and perfectly content with living behind bars for the rest of his life. This is until he receives a letter about his daughter and decides in one quick minute he must escape to go see her. Not only is the London prison an entirely brutal place with its own social system based on library cards, but the other inmates who pack the place are the typical asshole thugs. Frank devises an intricate escape plan and must recruit fellow inmates Lenny Drake (Joseph Fiennes), Brodie (Liam Cunningham), Lacey (Dominic Cooper), and Viv Batista (Seu Jorge).

The Escapist uses two parallel storylines that eventually converge to build the film. The first is showing the escape in progress, while the second is showing all of the events leading up to the escape and the preparation. Rupert Wyatt's editing techniques involve cutting between the storylines at moments where the location or the actor's actions were similar, something that mesmerized me every time. Great editing combined with an incredibly rich visual style, a riveting and inspiring story, one of the best scores I've heard in ages, and uncanny performances have resulted in my new favorite escape movie. The Escapist is a bold, energetic, intense, and inspiring film that surprised and impressed me more than almost any film at Sundance.

Although some will say story is everything with a movie, in The Escapist, not only is Frank Perry's story actually interesting (for once), but the remaining visual and aural elements outweigh the story in order to turn it into a fascinating film. Rupert Wyatt has considered all aspects of the prison atmosphere: the sound work in this is some the best all year (and deserves an Oscar nomination) and the rich visuals perfectly define this claustrophobic London prison. If you're a prison break movie fan in the slightest, then The Escapist deserves more than your undivided attention.

I've got to give a special shout out to Benjamin Wallfisch, who's work on the score in this incredible. The music in this is half of what made it so awesome. The music in The Escapist reminds me of Tyler Bate's 300 score, that was energetic, intense, and upbeat. Bravo Benjamin Wallfisch for composing one of my favorite scores of 2008.

Arty prison-break film intrigues and irritates By Stephen Farber
Wed Jan 23, 1:04 AM ET

PARK CITY, Utah (Hollywood Reporter) - There's a lot of talent on view in "The Escapist," though one wishes it were put to better use.

Rupert Wyatt's feature directorial debut, which had its premiere here, pays homage to a venerable tradition of movies about desperate men in prison searching for a way to break out.

The always compelling Brian Cox (who also served as executive producer) plays Frank, a lifer who learns that his daughter nearly died of a drug overdose; he decides to escape in order to help her. Frank enlists a group of fellow cons to aid him in the escape through sewers and tunnels. So far, so good. We look forward to an exciting adventure in the tradition of "The Great Escape" or "Escape From Alcatraz."

But "Escapist" plays more like "Memento." The time sequence is jumbled so that we keep cutting back and forth from the harrowing escape to earlier scenes of the men in their cells struggling with a typical contingent of prison creeps and bullies. The result of all this fancy intercutting is that the film never generates much suspense. Watching it is the cinematic equivalent of running in place; as the escape is constantly interrupted by scenes back inside the prison, we feel as if we're never moving.

Wyatt (who also co-wrote the screenplay with Daniel Hardy) tries to compensate for this inherently static structure by battering us with deafening sound effects and a good deal of bloody violence. In one scene, a con cuts off his own thumb as a form of deference to the prison boss (Damian Lewis). Another inmate (Joseph Fiennes) is a boxer who participates in a brutal boxing match. Then there's the inevitable prison homosexuality, including a bizarre drag parade and a rape that ends in violent retaliation.

All of this mayhem keeps us watching, but it would be hard to describe the experience as pleasurable. Cox has an intensely brooding presence, though the script is awfully spare in sketching out his character's background. In fact, we learn little about any of the characters, so it's fortunate that such excellent actors as Fiennes, Lewis, Dominic Cooper and Liam Cunningham are on hand to add texture.

Wyatt makes excellent use of the prison set, and the editing by Joe Walker certainly provides forward momentum.

Toward the end, the pieces of the puzzle come together unexpectedly and rather movingly. It turns out that what we have been watching is not quite as straightforward as it seemed to be. The story turns out not to be so much one of an escape as of self-sacrifice and redemption. Seeing the film a second time in light of the climactic revelations would probably be rewarding, but it's unlikely that many viewers will be motivated to go back and replay the action.

The denouement to "Escapist" is provocative, but it's a classic case of too little, too late.

Buena Vista Home Video // R // $39.99 // December 20, 2005

Review by Scott Weinberg | posted December 25, 2005

Special Note: You may be aware that The Great Raid was completed in 2002 and then left to sit on a shelf in the Miramax vault for about three years. 9 times out of 10, this kind of thing happens when everyone involved knows that the movie in question ... sucks. That is absolutely not the case with The Great Raid. I cannot comment on precisely why Miramax chose to hold on to the thing for so long, but I can offer the opinion that it was NOT for reasons of quality. I can only assume that a straightforward and old-style war movie makes for a "tough sell" in today's multiplex universe, but this is a very fine film. Ultimately, it's just really sad to see that a movie like this cannot be asked or expected to compete in today's marketplace. But that's just another reason we all love DVD so much: it's where underrated movies go to get some love.

The Movie

John Dahl's The Great Raid is well and truly an "old-fashioned" war movie, and if you think I mean that as less than a compliment, you should go out and rent some of the 40's and 50's finest war flicks. Based on, and adhering very closely to, actual events that occurred in early 1945, The Great Raid is not a hyper-kinetic flash-banger like Pearl Harbor, nor it is a cerebral rumination likeThe Thin Red Line; it's just a well-hewn and efficient re-telling of true story that's worthy of remembrance.

Basically, we have about 550 American prisoners-of-war held in a remote and foreboding Filipino jungle outpost, and it's up to the well-trained but unproven men of the 6th Ranger Battalion to mount a rescue mission. But this is no ordinary search and salvage operation, because the Japanese seem well aware that the tide of the war has turned, and would just as soon kill 550 prisoners before allowing them to be rescued. So how, exactly, does a battalion plan a rescue mission involving more than 500 near-dead hostages and over 1,000 brutal enemies?

Very, very carefully.

And that's where the "old fashioned" approach pays off in spades. Basically, if you're looking for a non-stop-action war movie, you're better off sticking with the Rambo sequels or something equally escapist in tone, because The Great Raid is about war the same way that The Silence of the Lambs is "about" serial killers. Dahl and his screenwriters take the (very welcome) approach that says "Just tell the story, sticking as closely as possible to the known facts." So while this means that The Great Raid has only one true "action scene" and that it takes place in the film's final 25 minutes, it also means that armchair historians, WWII buffs, and normal folks like you and I can just sit back and watch how a rescue mission like this one actually happened.

The first 2/3rds of The Great Raid deal with three distinct plot threads: the preparations of Lt. Col. Mucci (Benjamin Bratt) and Captain Prince (James Franco) as they concoct a mission plan, prepare their troops, and head on out to get the thing done; the assistance offered by nurse Margaret Utinsky, who risks her life by smuggling medicine into the POW camps; and the hell-on-Earth containment camp populated by Major Gibson (Joseph Fiennes), Capt. Redding (Marton Csokas), and more than 500 of their captured countrymen.

Big points due to Dahl and his screenwriters for sharing much of the well-earned glory with the Filipino resistance army. Those who go into The Great Raid expecting some sort of low-minded "America rocks" flag-waver may be a bit disappointed, but those on the lookout for an old-school nuts and bolts war flick should find The Great Raid to be a very welcome addition to your collection. As far as recent war movies go, I'd put The Great Raid just a notch below Black Hawk Down, but a dozen notches above stuff like We Were Soldiers and (gak) Pearl Harbor.

And as far as action scenes go, I'd take one long and stellar set-piece over three or four uninspired explosion-fests... and The Great Raid has one amazing action sequence. You just have to watch the whole story in order to earn and appreciate it.

(Director's Cut notes: Given that I did not see The Great Raid during its theatrical run, I cannot, with any accuracy, explain the differences between the two versions. But the director does a very good job, via audio commentary, of explaining why the DC is shorter than the theatrical cut. Essentially, he snipped out 95% of the "made-up" stuff in an effort to make 'his' version the most factually accurate. The sequences that were snipped from the theatrical version are included here as part of the Deleted Scenes section.)

The DVD

Video: The anamorphic widescreen (2.40:1) transfer is pretty damn excellent. Dahl has a no-muss no-fuss approach, and Peter Menzies' quietly superlative cinematography is consistently handsome without ever calling attention to itself. In other words: The flick looks great.

Audio: It's a well-oiled Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track, with optional subtitles in English and Spanish. Audio quality is quite excellent; the soundtrack is calibrated nicely between score, dialogue, sound effects, and the Act III explosion-fest.

Extras

If you want the theatrical cut, you'll be purchasing a Fullscreen single-disc release. Those who opt to spend the extra coin on the 2-disc director's cut will get a whole lot of return on their investment.

Disc 1 contains a frankly fantastic audio commentary with director John Dahl, producer Marty Katz, military advisor/actor Captain Dale Dye, editor Scott Chestnut, and "Ghost Soldiers" author Hampton Sides, a collection of 16 deleted scenes with optional commentary by John Dahl, and an 20-minute featurette entitled The Price of Freedom: The Making of The Great Raid, which has interviews with filmmakers, cast members, authors, and a few actual WWII veterans / P.O.W. survivors. This 'making-of' piece barely scratches the surface, but it's definitely got some solid bits for fans of of the film.

(I must take another minute to mention the audio commentary, which is just great. It covers the filmmaking process, of course, but it's also laden with tons of historical and military tidbits, too. Damn good chat-track, period.)

Disc 2 delivers all sorts of goodies, some dealing with the movie itself, and others focusing on the true story behind the actual Great Raid.

The Ghosts of Bataan is a 60-minute documentary focusing on the events that led up to "the great raid." Informative, tragic, and packed with recollections from two dozen soldiers who were actually there, this mini-doc makes for a fine companion piece to the feature film.

You'll find even more captivating anecdotes in the 9-minute The Veterans Remember, in which a few more Bataan survivors share their stories.

History Lesson with Author Hampton Sides is largely recycled from the main featurette, but here the author's comments are combined into one rather excellent 15-minute mini-lecture in which the whole darn story, from the invasion of Manila to the "death march" to the camp to the eventual rescue, is doled out in bite-sized portions. Mr. Sides knows his stuff, and he delivers it well. If only my old college professors told their stories this way...

Captain Dale Dye's Boot Camp is an 8-minute peek at the pre-shoot boot camp that many of the young actors must endure, plus there's also a 4-minute collection of Boot Camp Outtakes which prove that it's not all blood, sweat, and tears.

Under a heading labeled "Sound Design," you'll find two extra goodies: Mixing The Great Raid is a 10-minute featurette that focuses on, you guessed it, the masterful sound-work employed in the film, while The Mix Board is your chance to watch a selected scene with only the dialogue, the background noise, the foley work, the sound effects, or the music. Then watch the scene in its final form to see how much a good audio mix means to a movie.

One really cool supplement is the War In The Pacific Interactive Timeline, which allows you to click through a lot of WWII history, complete with dates, events, and audio clips from good ol' Hampton Sides. Rounding out the second disc is a Dedication to the Soldiers of Bataan, which runs 4 minutes and pays homage to the soldiers, the prisoners, the allies, and the heroes of the conflict in the Philippines.

Final Thoughts

One of the most common complaints I've read regarding The Great Raid is that it's slow-moving and fairly dull. Can't say I can agree on either of those counts, because this flick capably grabbed me by the the collar and gave me a two-hour history lesson that was both entertaining and very illuminating. I had my doubts that neo-noir master John Dahl could pull off a big-time war movie, but those doubts were dashed within 15 minutes of running time. The Great Raid might not be one of 2005's very best films, but it sure in hell is one of the year's most unfairly overlooked.

There are the prisoners themselves - frail, abused, sickly, malnourished, their endurance nicely dramatized by the abiding camaraderie between Maj. Gibson (Joseph Fiennes), ailing from malaria, and Capt. Redding (Marton Csokas), defiant toward his captors, fiercely loyal to his superior officer.

The prisoners, especially the comrades-in-arms dynamic between Fiennes and Csokas, anchor the film, their desperation palpable. A scene in which POWs are randomly selected for execution is chilling.

--- Fiennes is heartbreaking as the ailing major whose spirit remains unbroken, and Nielsen is surprisingly effective in the only female role of consequence. Bruno Rubeo's production design, Peter Menzies Jr.'s cinematography and Pietro Scalia's smooth editing are also noteworthy.

--- There have been many movies about POWs in captivity, but it's still the most interesting aspect of The Great Raid. Over 500 men were imprisoned at Camp Cabanatuan for three years, never realizing that they are the last survivors of the Bataan Death March, which weeded tens of thousands of captured American soldiers down to just them. Their Japanese captors have already killed off many of the soldiers imprisoned at other camps rather than allow the enemy to get their men back, something that puts even more pressure on the soldiers sent to rescue them. The film's strongest scenes happen here, such as when a soldier escapes and their captors decide to shoot ten innocent men to teach the prisoners a lesson. The camp setting offers the film's two best performances from Joseph Fiennes and Marton Csokas, as the captured commanding officers who must keep an eye on each other if they want to survive the ordeal. Both of them are able to carry themselves much like leading men of that era, adding to the feel of watching a movie made in the '40s or '50s.

--- The raid itself would have been enough for one movie, although the scene in Cabanatuan are by far the more compelling, thanks both to the dire straits the prisoners are in which lends their predicament built-in suspense and the painfully thin Fiennes, who gives the film's one truly outstanding performance as a man determined not even to let impending death defeat him.

--- There's no doubt in my mind that the best performance given is the one most emphasized, which is Joseph Fiennes' character. The title may be The Great Raid, but moviegoers are actually arriving for a double-feature: one part is a by-the-book heroic war movie, and the romantic minglings between an American nurse and a dying soldier in Cabanatuan. Fiennes is very convincing, and pulled at my heartstrings many times throughout the movie, whether its the tearjerker ending or when we see the malaria really taking a hold of his body.

--- Fiennes is outstanding as the frail but beloved officer whose integrity is emblematic of his time. Marton Csokas helps show the dangers of self-interest as Redding.

--- In the film's most faceted performance, Joseph Fiennes plays the commander of the POWs, Maj. Gibson.

--- Perhaps the best performance comes from Joseph Fiennes, in the role of the gaunt and malarial Major Daniel Gibson, a composite character who represents the soul of the film. Connie Nielsen's Nurse Margaret is a symbol as well, representing Daniel's hope, and by extension, the hope of every POW that one day they will be free. The psychological drama between Daniel and the prison commander is brief and intense. The rescue itself is fast and furious and exciting to watch. And the footage of the raid's aftermath as the POWs are treated and return home playing over the closing credits brings us a bit closer to the men who experienced it firsthand.

--- Director John Dahl has crafted a classic war movie with old-fashioned values that could have starred Henry Fonda and Robert Mitchum. Joseph Fiennes is outstanding as the thoughtful ranking officer in the POW camp.

--- The cast is by and large perfect, reviving an all but forgotten style of war-storytelling. Once again the Academy Awards have failed by not providing for a best ensemble cast category. The established screen presences of Joseph Fiennes and Connie Nielsen are flawless as the leader of the prisoners at Cabanatuan and the woman who is leading the underground effort to keep them alive.

--- Joseph Fiennes, brilliant as Maj. Gibson, the highest-ranking officer in the camp, casts a gaunt reflection of a great warrior felled by years of captivity and starvation. Hindered by his sunken cheeks and worsening health, Gibson barks out encouragement to his men and refuses offers from his captors to make his stay easier in exchange for information. Gibson, abandoned by his country, no longer can plumb his patriotic idealism for survival fuel. --- Fiennes is heartbreaking as the ailing major whose spirit remains unbroken, and Nielsen is surprisingly effective in the only female role of consequence.

oseph Fiennes and Jeremy Irons are flawless. Never has a Shylock aroused such pity and revulsion; and an Antonio appeared so pathetic and sad; or a Bassanio so selfish and self-absorbed. This Merchant is the best filmic adaptation of the play ever to hit the big screen.

Both Jeremy Irons and Joseph Fiennes show no small bravery in integrating callow bigotry into their ostensibly heroic characterizations.

Also on board is the ever-stately Jeremy Irons as Antonio and the always-excellent Joseph Fiennes as Bassanio.

Pacino infuses this Shylock with such a wide array of diverse passions, from pathos and compassion to vitriol and venom: he delivers the speeches with an energy and force that is thrilling to watch. His performance is equaled by the work of Jeremy Irons as the conflicted merchant Antonio and Joseph Fiennes as Bassanio. The kinetic energy between these three actors crackles across the screen in a rare display of pure thespian craftsmanship.

Jeremy Irons, Joseph Fiennes and Al Pacino acquit themselves so well they might have been honored at the Globe theatre for investing their part with much life and essential decency.

Young Shakespeare himself, Joseph Fiennes, gives perhaps his best performance since playing the Bard as Bassanio.

Joseph Fiennes gives a solid performance as the amorous Bassanio.

Fiennes slips comfortably back into the milieu that gave him his biggest success in Shakespeare in Love.

Joseph Fiennes again excelled as the lead male in a Shakespeare-based love story and Lynn Collins gave a measured rendition of fair Portia.

There is strong support from Irons and Fiennes.

The film's younger cast also do a fantastic job amid the heavyweights. Having played the playwright in the Oscar-winning Shakespeare In Love, Joseph Fiennes appears in his element as the charming suitor.

Jeremy Irons brings Antonio to life in a way that makes the impending cutting of his flesh and his imminent death terrifying, as are the detailed preparations. Joseph Fiennes is excellent as Bassanio, and the way the two relate suggests the possibility of a love that may go deeper than the bond of friendship that is certainly there.

Joseph Fiennes, in his best screen performance since "Shakespeare in Love', serves up perfect measures of ardor, humor and guilt-riddled loyalty as Bassanio, the young suitor whose loan guarantee almost costs friend Antonio his life.

Fine acting all around. Al Pacino plays an impassioned, full bodied Shylock, whose character who seems to physically diminish as the world comes crashing around him. Jeremy Irons, as the Merchant Antonio, gives his best performance since playing Klaus Von Bulow. Joseph Fiennes is a splendid Bassanio.

Joseph Fiennes, way underused as Bassanio, is nevertheless more than adequate, a star player breezing through a minor part.

"Fiennes is completely suited to the role of a devout man driven by a personal love of God to question stolid bureaucrats. Even when the script is lacking, Fiennes still suggests great, inner stirrings of conviction that give the movie a strong center. Molina, however, is on and off screen too quickly to make much of an impression. Joseph Fiennes is a visceral, intellectual Martin Luther."
Variety

"His Luther is always in earnest, gaining increasing confidence in his own infallibility even as he questions the pope's."
Hollywood Reporter

"Fiennes is stirring in his struggles with faith, including half-mad arguments with a devil that only he can see. His refusal to recant his written work before religious and political leaders plays as strongly as any courtroom drama."
Detroit Free Press

"A convincing performance by Joseph Fiennes rescues Luther from TV-movie biopic exile. The man who answers solely to God is entrenched in controversy from the get-go. As the architect of Reformation, Fiennes (complete with an emasculating Julius Caesar cut) proffers full-bore anguish and torment while denouncing papal abuse, never wavering from his noble fury."
Palo Alto Online

"In the role of Luther, Fiennes projects just the right blend of charisma and quiet intensity to make the character come alive as both a thinker and a man of action. Indeed, his heartfelt performance here has to rival his Shakespeare in Love turn as his most impressive screen work to date."
Seattle

"Ironically, prior to accepting the film, Fiennes reluctantly turned down the role of Luther in the London National Theater's Production of John Osborne's play because of a schedule conflict. So, he already had a passion for the character and was prepared to play this role.

"Fiennes does an incredible job at taking a difficult role and making the man of history come to life in a real and deeply moving story. His portrayal of Luther showed him to be a charismatic man as well as a bit shy, defiant, playful and intense. And you can definitely see where Fiennes' Shakespearean training helped him portray this character."
Crosswalk

"Joseph Fiennes does some admirable work in the role, passionate in the rare speeches and able to convincingly tip-toe around the lack of character development with smart choices."

"In a roller-coaster role, Fiennes is glibly self-assured one moment, poised on the brink of nervous breakdown the next and charismatically commanding the next. It's to the credit of this intently focused actor (Shakespeare in Love) that he finds as much of a coherent through-line as he does in Camille Thomasson and Bart Gavigan's script.

"Fiennes is admirable throughout. He captures the bone-deep conviction of Luther's beliefs, his anguish at turning against Rome and the power of genuine humility in the face of a duplicitous institution.

"His scenes with Bruno Ganz, excellent as a sympathetic Augustinian friar, are deeply, affectionately felt. Luther's confrontations with church and state officials have a wooden solemnity, but even here Fiennes finds the authentic, hair-trigger humanity. His huge eyes and broad mouth register Luther's storms of eloquent outrage and guardedly dawning sense of hope."
San Francisco Chronicle

"Wearing a persuasive tonsure, Fiennes in particular appears passionately devoted to the proceedings."
Boston Globe

"Luther (1483-1546), played with a fierceness by Joseph Fiennes, is set to be a lawyer when he is caught in a severe lightning storm and thinks he survived by a miracle. The picture is made watchable by Fiennes fine performance and a frail Ustinov offering comic antics in his animated expressions."

"Much of the credit goes to Joseph Fiennes, who plays the title figure without bombast or pretension. His Luther is a man of wit and intelligence, who comes by his faith relatively late in life and constantly struggles to reconcile it with his doubts. He pledges eternal loyalty to God during a thunderstorm -- so terrified by the lightning that he's willing to consign himself to monasticism rather than risk electrocution."
Flipside Movie Emporium

"This fascinating character sustains the film. Actor Fiennes, writers Camille Thomasson and Bart Gavigan and director Eric Till have done a laudable job of bringing this dusty historical character to life, exploring his spiritual torment in the beginning of the film, his irony and wit as he makes jabs at the church's teachings, his frustration as he translates the Good Book in isolation."
Boxoffice Magazine

"Joseph Fiennes gives a finely nuanced performance as Martin Luther, the reformer. The events surrounding Luther and his crisis of conscience that led to the Protestant Reformation are so epic and dramatic and scope I imagine the temptation would be to take all that sound and fury and embody it. But Fiennes brings us a complex Luther and the writers give us scene after scene that shows us his humor, his wit, his compassion and the fierce integrity that helped him stand up to Rome when the consequence could have been death."
Efilmcritic.com

None of this would be possible -- let alone credible -- were it not for the impassioned acting of Paltrow and Fiennes. Fiennes gives brother Ralph a run for his money. The RSC-trained actor, most recently seen in Elizabeth, endows Will Shakespeare with a likable humanity and romantic charm that, coupled with his good looks, make him ideally suited for the role. Variety

But the best work is center stage, with Fiennes and Paltrow. Fiennes, who can also be seen wearing tights in the same historical vicinity in "Elizabeth," plays the lovestruck Bard with a starmaking combination of passion, humor, matinee idol posturing, cockiness and humility.

It's the stars that carry the film. Fiennes, the younger brother of Ralph, has the burning eyes and brooding demeanor appropriate for a lover, and he and Paltrow, flourishing once again under a British accent and doing her best work since "Emma," have a winning chemistry. It's no small thing to be completely believable as a besotted couple who can't keep their hands off each other, and that is what the pair accomplish here.

With a superb cast headed by a luminous Gwyneth Paltrow and a smoldering Joseph Fiennes, Shakespeare in Love is both ribald and romantic, fulfilling its title's amorous promise.

And though Fiennes looks every bit the sulky matinee pin-up, he manages the steep verbal and emotional demands of his part with surprising ease. It's hard to play such an iconic figure without seeming phony or presumptuous, but he manages to make the character sympathetic.

Joseph Fiennes, with his dark, penetrating eyes, is excellent as Shakespeare. The younger brother of Ralph, Joseph is a double threat. Not only is he devilishly handsome, he's incredibly talented. He succeeds here with the proper mixture of old world charm and a longing in his eyes that say more than words ever can.

Director John Madden's attention to selecting actors with the ability to bring vibrant life to these characters is no less brilliant than the screenplay itself. Joseph Fiennes becomes Will Shakespeare, leaving an impression imprinted as immortally as Charlton Heston's Moses.

Fiennes's Will is magnificently moody. The studied tilt of the head, the hairy glimpse of cleavage, the smouldering stare are things few would dare to attempt even in the privacy of their own bathroom.

Our dear Mr Fiennes... well... gosh. He got the shaft, he soooooooooo deserved the nomination for best actor, and a fine argument could be made for his prospects for winning.

Fiennes is a solid actor who competently polishes a role that, to be fair, seems hard to master. One would be hard pressed to picture another young actor in this role. Fiennes achieves the youthful exuberance, sensuality and brilliance necessary to portray the Shakespeare director Madden has in mind.

Shakespeare in Love has one thing those other films lack, however: a rapturous quality of true, unbridled romance. Mostly, however, it's in the lyrically impassioned interplay of Paltrow and, especially, Fiennes. He is, simply, the young Shakespeare of one's dreams: neurotically handsome, canny, inspired yet pragmatic, and, essentially, besotted by love. He's a far more engaged actor than his brother, the chilly Ralph, and those brown eyes burn with a fevered ardency, both foolish and fond, unseen since the young Olivier in Paul Czinner's 1936 film of As You Like It. The movie would be nothing without a central actor capable of being a toweringly dashing romantic figure, as well as the living embodiment of the greatest of writers. Miraculously, Fiennes encompasses all of this, and is a superb, nervy comedian to boot.

Mr. Fiennes is always accessible yet never less than convincing as a literary icon. He even looks lively when brooding.

Fiennes is a dynamic screen presence, more sensual than his older brother, Ralph Fiennes, with a brooding appeal that can melt into a puppy-love gaze at the drop of a sonnet. He delivers a starmaking performance that simmers with promise.

Joseph Fiennes, who "only" played Shakespeare and made the whole thing work, was snubbed at awards time.

Fiennes carries the day. He is lithe, strong, hot, with an attractive voice. He moves through this film with the surreal effect of a flashing rapier. His Shakespeare puts the seal on the pact between us and the film. "Very well, this is not fact," we concede. "Then let it be gratifying fiction." And it is.

Judi Dench deserves the Oscar, Gwyneth Paltrow (deserving or not) will probably win, and Joseph Fiennes was robbed [Much as I hate to say this deserved another nomination.]

Shakespeare is Joseph Fiennes, younger brother of Ralph. Joseph, more slender and dark and willowy than his brother, has had some small parts in films and some large ones in the London theater, including the Royal Shakespeare Company. Now he is (gulp) the bard himself. This is hardly the first time that Shakespeare has been a character in a dramatic work. Even Bernard Shaw used him - in a one-act play, The Dark Lady of the Sonnets, where he implores Elizabeth to found a national theater. Still, it can't be a role an actor steps into blithely. His best advantage is that, as Bate tells us, little is really known about the man's character. Ben Jonson said he was of "an open and free nature," then added that he had "gentle expressions, wherein he flowed with that facility that sometimes it was necessary that he should be stopped.... His wit was in his own power; would the rule of it had been, too." But this semi-generous description, one of the few accounts that survive, isn't of much relevance to an actor who wants to play a Shakespeare who is a model for his own Romeo.

The performances throughout the film are excellent. Joseph Fiennes as Will brings the tortured, impassioned playwright to life and makes him human.

The performances are exceptional across the board too, as is obvious by the 'best' nominations for Paltrow, Rush, and Judi Dench. But in true Academy fashion, they betrayed the film's center by ignoring Fiennes when passing out invitations to the banquet. Prior to Shakespeare, Joseph Fiennes was best known as the little brother of Ralph Fiennes, but here he proves to be every bit as good an actor as his bro, without the burden of Ralph's stiff upper lip. Joseph has that 'watchability' that's a must for any movie star, and I'm sure he's on the way to a long career.

The stellar cast pulls this production off with joyful energy and sincere passion. Joseph Fiennes, seen recently in the critically praised Elizabeth, continues to impress. His turn as William Shakespeare is intensely comedic and purposefully dramatic. It is a nice balance of emotional levels that segue naturally between each other. Instead of the historical literary icon, Fiennes's Shakespeare is nothing more than a struggling artist who must deal with deadlines, bills, producers, writer’s block and contemporary rivals. He is not as assured as one might think, making Shakespeare more human and relatable. Joseph, brother of Ralph Fiennes, shows his vast acting range in this performance. You could say that he’s Ralph—with a personality.

Joseph Fiennes is sensational as the bedeviled Bard, whose extraordinary talents as a writer and a poet fetch him little more than a penny a page.

But the heart and soul of the film belong to its two stars: Fiennes's lean and hungry Shakespeare makes you feel the passionate fluids of ink and semen that animated the man before the receding hairline and graveyard mask of history were thrust on him; and Paltrow remains a gloriously love-smitten wench whose frequent lightning changes of wig to make her look like a boy - what she does with her own blonde waterfall remains "a mystery" - don't conceal her irrepressible sexiness and irresistible glamour. I may have gone in to Shakespeare in Love as a sceptic: I don't mind confessing I came out a sycophant.

The couplings of Fiennes and Paltrow possess more than screen chemistry. They have an alchemical potency, too. As we watch them, they turn love into art. An affair of the heart becomes creatively invigorating. The passion fusing the pair together at night behind a bedroom door, where Viola's old nurse (Imelda Staunton) stands guard, passes at dawn into glorious lines of poetry for the stage. Will's latent play sheds its piratical overtones - as well as its heroine Ethel - and takes shape on the parchment and then the boards as Romeo and Juliet.

You have to believe with any actor playing Shakespeare that he actually wrote the plays. In Fiennes's hard, swift intelligence and loquacious infatuation with words, you get a hint that he just might have.

Joseph Fiennes captures the sardonic charisma and the slippery bad faith of the character, but is less good at conveying the acrid edge of self-disgust that underlies the bravado. Unusually in a drama with Osborne's name on it, the hero is confronted with intelligent, effective female opposition. This comes in the shape of the mother's attractive divorced sister, Ruth, an intellectual who has just extricated herself from both the Communist Party and a six-year affair with another struggling author.

Still, it's a good part, and excellently played by Joseph Fiennes. With his dark eyes receding to the back of the skull that hovers above the skeletal body which tapers up inside a period duffle coat, he looks the frustrated actor and writer he is meant to be. He sounds it too, exuding a lugubrious sensitivity, plus unease, restlessness, suppressed bitterness, everything bar the "mentally picaresque dishonesty" the stage directions inscrutably demand.

But the play exudes that peculiar Osborne flavour: a dislike of mean, middle-class values exceeded only by the author's self-hatred. It also holds the stage extremely well. Joseph Fiennes as George has the ability to switch in a second from youthful ebullience to a desolate fatigue. He also rightly leaves you in doubt as to whether George is a posturing mediocrity, or a real talent who sells his soul for suburban safety.

Joseph Fiennes, as forlornly tall and gangling as a depressed giraffe, memorably captures the patronising smiles and unearned superiority of Dillon, as well as his terrifying dawning awareness of his own mediocrity. And in one of the few really strong women's roles Osborne ever wrote, Francesca Annis matches every bruising verbal sally as the once free-spirited but now defeated Ruth. The mixture of sexuality and desolation in their scenes together seem like the very essence of Osborne.

Peter Gill has done a great service both to the London theatre and the writers of this play by reviving it. It provides a very enjoyable two and three quarter hours and despite its unevenness, will prove popular with a variety of playgoers. Its appeal should stretch across the spectrum with screen fans attracted by the big-name stars and theatre buffs by the chance to see an early almost unknown work by Osborne that sheds light on Look Back in Anger. With its star names and intellectual depth, Epitaph for George Dillon deserves a long run, although it must run the risk that Joseph Fiennes will have lucrative screen commitments and might prove difficult to replace.

Fiennes who is far too rarely seen on stage these days gives a lovely performance in the title part opposite his sister-in-common-law Miss Annis who is suitably touching as a woman born before her time.

This would all be so much self-indulgent whining were it not for the calibre of the writing and the performances. Fiennes revs up to such contortions of sarcasm that, had George been born 30 years later, he would have been fronting the Sex Pistols. With his long, uneasy face and curved posture, he looks like a man trying to crowbar himself into his own life. When he asks Josie for music “to soothe my shabby soul”, and she chirps “Go on, you haven’ t got one”, Fiennes gives a flinch of anguish, the terrible suspicions of a trapped man validated by this stupid girl.

"This was the first time I have seen an audience in a regional theatre give a standing ovation to a classical play.

"What is brilliant about the 28-year-old Marlowe is that he is not carried away into taking sides; and Joseph Fiennes, at much the same age, understands this perfectly. The matinée idol looks are shaded over by sinister instincts. Fiennes's Edward is handsome, ruthless, vengeful, quick-tempered, almost unstable. His natural dignity is pricked and slashed by a sense of frivolity that is, to him, like an escape. His body movements are elegant, sometimes playful, never effeminate."

"Fiennes gives as good a performance as I've seen from him. And that's not just because of the mix of political caprice and sexual glee he displays at first, nor just because of his confused anguish at surrendering the crown.

"No, it's more because of the spiritual growth that suffering gives him. When Joseph Fiennes quietly, touchingly murmurs "commend me to my son and bid him rule better than I", you can't help recalling the apotheosis of the similarly reborn king his brother Ralph played last year. And to invite comparisons between Marlowe's Edward II and Shakespeare's infinitely interesting Richard IIis quite an achievement."

"But the fascinating thing about Joseph Fiennes's performance in Michael Grandage's production is that it shows us a man, like Richard [II], educated through suffering. The lower Fiennes falls, the higher he rises spiritually.

"At first, Fiennes's Edward is recklessly frivolous. He snogs his minion, Piers Gaveston, in front of his blustering barons and treats his wife, Isabella, with casual contempt, airily crying: 'Let her droop and pine.' His lack of political nous is also shown by the way he allows an aged Bishop to be ducked in the public drains, thereby stirring the church's vengeful wrath.

"Both Fiennes and the production rise superbly to the spectacle of Edward's decline. Having capered dutifully, Fiennes acquires a specific gravity as his kingdom disintegrates after Gaveston's death. The key moment comes when, having donned a monkish habit, he cries, 'Father, this life contemplative is heaven.' It's as if he has suddenly awoken to the bliss of introspection. Fiennes's voice also takes on a dry, sardonic quality as, in anticipation of Richard [II], he mockingly hands over the crown. And, at the last, he becomes a muddied martyr as his imprisoned head, in a vicious echo of the earlier scene, is plunged into the castle sewage. Fiennes's true gift is for inwardness; and, through his graceful stealth, he elevates Marlowe's rhetorical homily into true tragedy."

"Fiennes, with his long, sensual face and resonantly expressive voice, once again proves that he's a much sexier actor than his brother Ralph, who too often gives an impression of emotionally constipated prissiness. In contrast, Fiennes Minor brilliantly captures the adolescent exhibitionism of Edward's relationship with Gaveston (James D'Arcy), getting a palpable thrill from snogging his minion in front of the nobles. But although this Edward is often absurd in his petulant fecklessness, it's impossible not to be moved by the terrible degradation he's subjected to, though characteristically Marlowe allows his hero no tragic insight at the end."

"Michael Grandage now mounts his own lucid and powerful production of the play at the Crucible, and it's a measure of his clout that he has lured to Sheffield an actor as high-profile as Joseph Fiennes, who heads a cast almost indecently dense with top-notch talent.

"In the role of the besotted monarch, Fiennes offers a compelling study of pensive, thumb-gnawing insecurity. It's as though where his self-esteem should be, there is a great hole that only the false love of a male flatterer can fill. When asked why he dotes on James D'Arcy's pretty-boy hunk of a Gaveston, Fiennes lets you hear the loneliness, rather than the arrogance, in Edward's reply: "Because he loves me more than all the world."

"And in Sheffield, Joseph Fiennes smoulders gracefully through the title role in a production by hot director Michael Grandage that prefers style, pace and energy over cheap sensationalism.

"There was an astonishing response. As Fiennes sauntered on for his curtain call, the audience literally roared its approval, and many of them leapt to their feet.

"I have never seen such a thing in a regional theatre - a tribute, certainly, to Fiennes's star pulling power, but also to his intelligence and the cracked and sobbing quality of his voice, a characteristic he now has under perfect control, devoid of self-pity.

"Fiennes presents a brooding, sullen portrait of a man whose public life is about to be ruined in a private, self-induced crisis.

"THIS was the play that made Ian McKellen's reputation in 1969. In 1986, the current director played Gaveston in a splendid revival at the Royal Exchange in Manchester.

"Since then, Simon Russell Beale at the RSC and Eddie Izzard, no less, in Leicester, have tapped into the modern appeal of the play, and Derek Jarman made a memorable movie.

"But none has illuminated its dark corners and restless, shifting poetry so beautifully as does Fiennes."

"At Sheffield, Michael Grandage is taking more of a chance with his star, staging Joseph Fiennes in Marlowe's rarely performed Edward II. Anyone who squeezes into the Crucible just to see Fiennes won't be disappointed. His portrayal of the king, famous for dying with a red-hot poker rammed up his bottom, is at first light, quick and sardonic, later, reflective and self-absorbed."

"Fiennes is a soulful actor – those big doe-eyes! – and is stronger at conjuring Edward's private than public face. Not that there's always a distinction: his affair with Gaveston can rarely have been this overt. "Witness", he instructs the queen, "how dear thou art to me" – then promptly snogs his lover. His barons gatecrash the pair enjoying a medieval Take That gig, at which gold-painted beefcakes gyrate on a tabletop. But, vulgar and dangerous though it is, the couple's tender, giggling, joyous romance is for real – or so we realise when Gaveston is condemned, and our hearts suddenly leap for Edward."

"Joseph Fiennes gets better and better as the play races on. But it's the loss of his lover and his crown, and the suffering he endures, which gains him his heart and soul - and finally our sympathy.

"Funnily enough, this has much to do with his eyebrows, which are marvellously expressive but seen at their best when the crown is off and he is a ragged, wretched prisoner in the dungeon of Berkeley Castle."

In the central role, Joseph Fiennes gives a commanding performance of enormous range, witty and passionate, by turns both funny and despairing, petulant and pitiful.

"Joe Fiennes is a true Elizabethan. He made his name as the young Bard in Shakespeare in Love and as Dudley in the film Elizabeth. Now he's turned to Christopher Marlowe's tragedy Edward II, in the first major regional revival since Eddie Izzard played the role in Leicester (what a weird night that was).

"Fiennes is brilliantly smitten in this snogfest which comes across as a startlingly modern love affair. Edward must have his adored Gaveston and the barons can stuff it.

"It's great to see work of this quality out of London and a real star bringing life to a play that usually lies rotting on the far side of the school syllabus."

"The Crucible auditorium is the third largest theatre space in Britain, and yet every single seat for the entire run has been sold.

"Naturally, the presence of screen heartthrob Joseph Fiennes is a big sell, but Edward II has done more than showcase a film star, it has put theatre on the map again as a vibrant, living art form to compete with cinema, pop music and the internet. The buzz around this production has made a seat for the Crucible auditorium the hottest ticket in town, and the extraordinary thing about the show is not just that it has put 'bums on seats', but that it has done so with artistic integrity intact.

"Fiennes turned down a 2 million GBP film role to take the part of Edward. It has paid off in spectacular fashion.

"Fiennes plays the vilified King with resonance. He is an actor with mind and body perfectly attuned, his physicality bringing Marlowe's voice to life. He dances colourfully and covorts provocatively with his minion Gaveston, he shrinks and cowers from the nobles, he slowly deflates as his power is sucked from him, finally appearing gaunt and mud besplattered at his gruesome execution.

"The casting is superb with Joseph Fiennes putting heart, mind and soul into his performance. His King is a fool, who fails to foresee the inevitable consequences of letting his arrogant lover abuse the clergy and the barons, yet he is a very human fool. It is impossible not to mourn for him and to share in his torments."