Odin after hearing about his girlfriend cheating on him seeks out to take revenge by bringing down the guy her girlfriend is with, which eventually causes great pain.
Long on the Shelf, O is well directed and decently acted, but its narrative, while more or less faithful to Shakespeare, tried to do too much, pushing the characters and their emotions to unreasonable and unconvincing extremes.
This transferral of the tragedy of the Moor to a contempo American high school is something that never should have gone further than a class assignment to see if it could be made to work.
Empire Magazine
December 30, 2006
Hartnett never allows him to become a hissable villain, keeping Hugo shy of our sympathies, yet his every move is utterly believable.
It's a doomy dirge of a movie, in which the protagonists, or at least the actors who play them, aren't equipped to handle their outsize passions.
Film Journal International
March 01, 2007
Helmer Nelson has fashioned a clever premise, helped along by a smart ensemble that manages to highlight Shakespeare's work without parodying it--no small accomplishment.
Leave it to Hollywood to make a bold, challenging film for teens (and adults) only to let it collect dust on a shelf as proposed release dates were set, then scratched, many times over.
Observer (UK)
March 25, 2008
It's highly enjoyable and well acted, with the Iago figure better motivated than in the original play, no single line of which has been retained except for the odd echo.
