O

Review by By Clint Morris

Begging for greatness, "0" transposes Shakespeare's "Othello" to a code prep school in South Carolina. The Moor of Venice, the war hero who subdued the Turkish invaders, is now Odin, nicknamed "O" (Mekhi Phifer), the school's star basketball player and the only African American on campus.

Smitten with adoration for his white girlfriend Desi (Julia Stiles), O is convinced he has that golden ticket. Fellow student, Hugo (Hartnett) plans to bring O down from Cloud Nine. Hugo is constantly hearing his father (Sheen), also the basketball coach, praising O and is fed up with someone else being in the spotlight.

Knowing the man is already wary of his daughter seeing a black man, Hugo convinces the dean of the school (John Heard) that 0 is forcing the dean's daughter into things that she doesn't want to do. And Pretty soon Hugo and his bunch of friends are spreading false gossip about O and eventually have the basketball star believing that his girlfriend, Desi, is two timing him - which is the beginning of Odin's frightening rage of jealousy.

"O" has drawn up its share of controversy since it wrapped production, more controversy than it's probably deserving of. It may attract teens with its bleak and dark nature, but they have seen it all before and to a much more gorier, entertaining degree in films like "I Know what You did last summer" and "Scream".

Director Tim Blake Nelson and screenwriter Brad Kaaya have curiously followed the dramatic outline of Shakespeare's play. Yet on the level of character, almost nothing makes sense. It's impossible to swallow that these are high schoolers. The psychological concoctions dreamed up by Hugo are unconvincing in the shoes of that character, and the actors display a composure and an attention span that are out of keeping with teenage behaviour.

Where "O" works though is the interracial romance between O and Desi. That's the place where the film ever so briefly drops its after-school-special demeanour to show how easily a relationship between two people, who unexpectedly find themselves as soul mates, can be undermined by the baggage they can't help carrying with them.

Had Blake Nelson and Kaaya abandoned the idea of following the play scene for scene and instead pursued this love affair further, "O" might have had as much bite as it does bark.

3 out of 5

O
Australian release: Commences Decemeber 13th across Australia
Cast: Mekhi Phifer, Josh Hartnett, Julia Stiles, Andrew Keegan, Martin Sheen, Rain Phoenix.
Director: Tim Blake Nelson.
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