Looking For Richard

"Looking for Richard" is a fractured documentary intercutting brief interview discussions of William Shakespeare's work - particularly "Richard III" - with longer sequences culled from rehearsals and a full-dress performance of that play. It also marks Al Pacino's directing debut.

As you might expect, Pacino takes the title role in the play, but he also plays journalist for the documentary segments, which are a strange amalgam of Jay Leno-style man-on-the-street "What-do-you-think-of-Shakespeare?" interviews with New Yorkers and sit-downs with experts on the subject, including Sir John Gielgud and Kenneth Branagh.

The film's thesis is obvious: The unwashed masses are out of touch with the classics. What a revelation!

"Looking for Richard" is also a love poem from Pacino to himself, as a purveyor of the arts who desires to make one of Shakespeare's more difficult plays more accessible to the common man.

In that regard, he partially succeeds, which does give the film some value. And this is especially true for students of theater, as Pacino takes us backstage, perhaps unintentionally giving us more insight into the theatrical process than of Shakespeare or his plays.

And there is a major injection of entertainment value from the intelligent cast, as Pacino elicits vitality and witty commentary from people like James Earl Jones, Vanessa Redgrave and Kevin Kline, in addition to Gielgud and Branagh. They explain the characters and attempt interpretations of some of the more dense areas of "Richard III."

And in the scenes from the play, such marquee names as Winona Ryder, Alec Baldwin, Aidan Quinn and Kevin Spacey show up, reading the play in a run-through, rehearsing scenes and finally performing in full costume.

The latter scenes are not the film's strongest, as these actors - including Pacino - do not turn out particularly stellar performances. In that sense it is an inadvertent testimonial to strong directors. Imagine those same scenes as choreographed and interpreted by Branagh!

But "Looking for Richard" is seldom boring, and certainly Pacino is eager to please.

And if he had kept the R-rated language in check, this PG-13-rated film would be an ideal video for high school classroom study.