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A Midsummer Night's Dream | 1999 | PG-13 | - 6.2.2

In this adaptation of William Shakespeare's play, lovers fall for the least likely partners when a mischievous nymph casts a spell upon them. With Christian Bale, Rupert Everett, Calista Flockhart, Anna Friel, Bill Irwin, Gregory Jbara, Kevin Kline, Sophie Marceau, Michelle Pfeiffer, Roger Rees, Sam Rockwell, John Sessions, David Strathairn, Stanley Tucci, Dominic West and Max Wright. [1:55]

SEX/NUDITY 6 - Some sexual innuendo and many kisses; a few are passionate. We see a nude but strategically-covered couple, obviously post-coitus, rolling around together. In two different scenes, two nude couples embrace and/or kiss each other (in both scenes, the women's breasts and genitals are covered by their long hair, the men's arms or sheets, and in one of the scenes we see part of the men's bare buttocks). Several couples in the background of a scene are lying together and nuzzling in each other's faces and necks; we also see a man and woman embrace each other as they fall asleep. A woman straddles a man as she talks to him and a man rolls on top of a woman and kisses her. A woman places a man's hand on her clothed breast and a naked man wakes a woman by cupping her clothed breast and they kiss passionately for a bit (we see his bare chest, back and part of his buttocks, briefly). It's implied a man has an erection and women look at it and giggle. As several nude women are swimming, we see their shoulders, cleavage and some of their breasts. We briefly see part of two women's bare breasts through their open shirts and we see some topless women with their hair covering their breasts. Two nude men hold clothes in front of their genitals, but we do glimpse some pubic hair. We see Cupid's bare backside in a painting and a bare-breasted statue. We see lots of scantily clad women in sheer, tiny "fairy" costumes and cleavage-revealing slips and dresses.

VIOLENCE/GORE 2 - Men and women push each other into a mud puddle and scuffle, a woman slaps a man, a man grabs another by the ear and a woman bumps into another. A drunken man falls on a step, another man falls to the ground, a woman falls off her bike and a man runs into a post. A woman gets a bloody scrape on her shin. An avalanche of rocks causes a roof to start caving in on people (nobody appears to be injured). A man swings a dog around and it flies into someone's arms. We briefly see a woman whose hair is writhing snakes. A lightning bolt strikes the ground and causes a small fire. We hear a man urinating.

LANGUAGE 2 - Several anatomical references (some used as synonyms for a mule), a couple of mild obscenities and some name calling.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Spells, fairies, falling in love, arranged marriages, royalty.

MESSAGE - "What fools these mortals be"; falling in love can be a truly magical experience.

CAVEATS

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.


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