Film

The Tempest

Name: The Tempest
Genre: Drama, Fantasy, Comedy
Released: 2010
Cast: Helen Mirren, Felicity Jones, Reeve Carney, David Strathairn, Tom Conti

Other titles called The Tempest: the 1980 film.

Drama

Julie Taymor's 2010 take reimagines Shakespeare's final play with a female Prospera at the helm of an island conspiracy. It's visually sumptuous and theatrically ambitious—Taymor doesn't do restraint—with Helen Mirren commanding the stage. A film for people who love Shakespeare enough to watch it transformed, not just performed.

TMDb rating

2.7

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy Shakespeare's late romance reworked with a bold gender swap, lush island visuals, and a revenge plot that softens into reconciliation rather than bloodshed.

Skip it if you want a faithful, verse-heavy stage production; this version trims and reshapes the language and leans on screen spectacle, which some purists find a loss.

What it asks of you: Roughly no more than ninety minutes of plot sits inside a little under two hours, so it moves at a measured pace and rewards steady attention to its dialogue.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

The Witch2016

A woman isolated with her family on hostile land, wielding ancient knowledge as her only weapon. Pacing is glacial but the atmosphere is suffocating—a quieter kind of power fantasy that shares Prospera's grim pragmatism.

But Punishingly slow and genuinely disturbing. It's about paranoia, guilt, and the cruelty families inflict on each other. Not cathartic.

Macbeth2015

Justin Kurzel's visceral Shakespeare, all mud and blood and ambition. Shot like a war film, not a period piece. If you want Shakespeare stripped down to its skeleton and made to hurt, this is it.

But Refuses to let the language sing. Some find it reductive—all violence and none of the wit. Very grim.

Prospero's Books1991

Peter Greenaway's hallucinogenic adaptation where Prospero is a bibliophile sorcerer conjuring entire worlds through books. Visual excess that actually earns itself—every frame is startling and deliberate.

But Dense, pretentious, and occasionally impenetrable. It's an adaptation that assumes you know the play and makes you work anyway.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Tempest

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Shape of Water2017

Both pit a isolated woman with hidden depths against forces that underestimate her. Both end not with revenge but with choosing a different island—choosing exile on your own terms.

Guillermo del Toro's cold-war romance where a mute woman falls for an amphibious creature. Like The Tempest, it's about exile, isolation, and a power dynamic where vulnerability becomes strength. The connection is deeper than it sounds.

But Romance plot with a non-human creature might read as bizarre or unsettling rather than beautiful, depending on your tolerance for strangeness.

The King's Speech2010

Released the same year, also features character actors at the top of their game and a focus on power dynamics between its leads. Same emotional register—adult drama with stakes that aren't about spectacle.

But If you're looking for magic and visual invention, this is the opposite. It's a two-person conversation filmed with complete restraint.

Midnight in Paris2011

Another film that uses the fantastic—time travel instead of sorcery—as a vehicle for deeper questions about desire, resentment, and what we actually want from life. Lighter in tone but structurally similar.

But Cosy and romantic in a way The Tempest isn't. If you want darker stakes and genuine revenge, this might feel like dessert when you wanted a main course.

A Midsummer Night's Dream1999

Michael Hoffman's lush, sensual Shakespeare where a magical forest really does seem to shimmer with possibility. Similar willingness to make Shakespeare visual and contemporary without apologising for it.

But The young lovers are somewhat interchangeable and unmemorable. Taymor's cast work harder—there's less to love if you don't connect with the romance.

The OA2016

A woman with extraordinary knowledge and powers assembles strangers to help her navigate both her past and impossible futures. Visually audacious television that trusts you to follow its mythology without holding your hand.

But Never finished—the story cuts off mid-narrative with no resolution. Investing in it requires accepting heartbreak.

Yellowjackets2021

Stranded survivors piecing together what really happened, using magic and trauma in ways that feel earned. Genuinely weird and willing to go places most prestige TV won't follow.

But Increasingly fractured and deliberately obscure. Some viewers feel it sacrifices clarity for mystery in ways that read as evasive rather than clever.

A Field in England2013

Both films treat magic not as special effects but as a grammar of power. Both trap characters in a space that operates by different rules and force them to understand those rules to survive.

Ben Wheatley's monochrome nightmare about English Civil War soldiers stumbling into a landscape that becomes increasingly surreal and hostile. Claustrophobic and hypnotic, using myth and power the way Taymor does—as lived experience, not decoration.

But Black and white, nearly plotless, and deliberately disorienting. Hostile to passive viewing. Some find it pretentious; it's genuinely difficult in ways that aren't always rewarding.

Under the Skin2014

Both films centre a female figure of unknowable power on an island (literal or metaphorical) where she orchestrates encounters with men who don't understand what they've wandered into. Both are as much about loneliness as about control.

Jonathan Glazer's science-fiction tone poem about an alien woman moving through Scotland, seducing men. Minimal plot, maximum atmosphere. Asks what it means to be an outsider with power in a world that doesn't recognize you as human.

But Glacially paced and almost entirely silent. No character arc in the traditional sense. Actively hostile to the idea of explaining itself.