If you had a love-potion, who would you make fall madly in love with you? Timothy, prone to escaping his dismal high school reality through dazzling musical daydreams, gets to answer that question in a very real way. After his eccentric teacher casts him as Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream, he stumbles upon a recipe hidden within the script to create the play's magical, purple love-pansy.
A diverting Chicago-made export, director and co-writer Tom Gustafson's gay fantasia on Shakespearean themes is set in a socially stratified private school ruled by the rugby jocks but about to be sent into a tizzy thanks to the magic of Shakespeare.
– Michael Phillips,
Chicago Tribune,
12 Dec 2008
fresh:
Editorial Review Writer-producer-director Tom Gustafson's musical fantasy Were the World Mine, based on Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, is mostly delightful.
– Mike Mayo,
Washington Post,
12 Dec 2008
rotten:
Were the World Mine is seriously uneven. If it displays considerable imagination and creativity, it also lapses too often into smug, campy silliness.
– Kevin Thomas,
Los Angeles Times,
12 Dec 2008
fresh:
Were the World Mine gets by on sheer charm -- and on Gustafson's inventive direction, Kira Kelly's elegant cinematography and co-screenwriter Cory James Krueckeberg's whimsical production design, which works wonders on a limited budget.
– Moira MacDonald,
Seattle Times,
29 Jan 2009
rotten:
This high school reworking of A Midsummer Night's Dream never really takes flight, but neither is it the preening misfire the first half promises.