Al Pacino finally plays Lear and the casting is so obvious it hurts.
An aging king splits up his kingdom for his three daughters to govern, but is misled about their affections and driven into exile.
Acting
Pacino doing Pacino doing Shakespeare—inevitable, probably magnificent.
Direction
Bernard Rose knows how to make literary adaptation visceral.
Writing
It's Shakespeare's bleakest masterpiece, unedited.
Director
Bernard Rose
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Pacino has played Lear on stage twice before—this film version took fifteen years to finance.
Rose shot this immediately after 'Traveling Light,' making it his second pandemic-era Shakespeare adaptation.
US
