The New York Times Review

The Merchant of Venice: Putting a Still-Vexed Play in a Historical Context

By A. O. Scott
Directed by Michael Radford (best known for "Il Postino"), "The Merchant of Venice," which stars Jeremy Irons, Al Pacino, Joseph Fiennes and Lynn Collins, is better-than-average screen Shakespeare: intelligent without being showily clever, and motivated more by genuine fascination with the play's language and ideas than by a desire to cannibalize its author's cultural prestige.