THE TEMPEST (2010)
A dazzling Shakespearean romance worth seeing with discernment.
Should You Watch It?
Julie Taymor’s adaptation is visually stunning and gives Shakespeare’s famous play a strong emotional center. Its second half focuses on forgiveness, reconciliation, family relationships, and the possibility of returning home together. The film’s Christian values ultimately gain the victory.
The content is generally light but deserves parental discernment. There is rear and upper male nudity, light flowery innuendo, mythical magic and alchemy, alcohol use and drunkenness, and some comical violence. Younger viewers may also struggle with the language and themes.
If your teenagers can follow Shakespeare and your family is comfortable discussing magic and innuendo, this is a superb introduction to a unique play. For preteens and younger children, choose something more accessible.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESProspera, a magician and alchemist, lives with her daughter Miranda on a magical island after betrayal and exile. When the king connected to their past is shipwrecked nearby, Prospera uses her magical servant Ariel to bring him and others ashore.
As Miranda is drawn to the king’s son, Prospera teaches her former enemies some lessons while considering whether forgiveness can restore what was lost. But the island’s other inhabitants have plans of their own.
Is It Any Good?
Four stars means this is a superb production with lasting value. Taymor makes Shakespeare’s play visually stunning, while the focus on personal relationships gives the story emotional weight. The theme of forgiveness grows especially powerful in the movie’s second half.
The film is also a heady introduction to Shakespeare. Its themes, motifs and language are less accessible than some versions of other Shakespeare plays, but this remains one of the best film introductions to this unique work. Older viewers and those interested in Shakespeare may find it worth seeing more than once.
The Worldview
The film presents a strong moral worldview centered on forgiveness, reconciliation, and learning from wrongdoing. It includes positive references to God and a reference to Divine Providence. Its magical and alchemical powers are compared to witchcraft, but Prospera ultimately renounces them, gives up her magical staff and occult books, and releases Ariel from her service for the sake of her daughter’s future.
The story also includes a talking spirit released from a tree after being trapped there by an evil witch. This mythical framework may confuse younger viewers, even though the film’s moral direction ultimately rejects the heroine’s magical power.
Changing Shakespeare’s Prospero from a man into Prospera opens a feminist reading, especially when Alonso banishes her for being a witch. At the same time, the change undercuts the potentially anti-colonial themes some viewers have seen in the slave-master relationship between Caliban and Prospero. The adaptation instead emphasizes personal relationships: Caliban’s resentment, Prospera’s concern for Miranda, Alonso’s concern for his son, and the transforming power of forgiveness.
The film’s deepest longing is for restoration: the recovery of family, home, and right relationships. Scripture calls believers to this kind of mercy: “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32).
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Content Summary
Strong Christian, moral worldview stresses forgiveness, reconciliation and learning moral lessons, including a reference to Divine Providence, with magic and alchemy used by heroine being compared to witchcraft but heroine renounces the power, tosses her magical staff into the sea and gives up her occult books for the sake of her daughter’s future, with a couple positive references to God but also references to a talking spirit released from a tree, where it was trapped by an evil witch now dead; no foul language but comical character makes farting sounds at one point; light comical violence, two men draw swords to kill their king while he sleeps but king wakes up in time, storm ravages ship at sea, spirit transforms into large harpy to frighten and chastise three men, and three characters plot to kill protagonist but they are stopped; no sex scenes but young lovers kiss and there’s some light flowery innuendo, especially to teenager losing her virginity but mother steps in to prevent it and watch over behavior of daughter and her royal lover, who mother wants to marry her daughter so they can return home, plus comical male character plays with female clothes for laughs and comedy; rear male nudity, upper male nudity and androgynous spirit’s groin is shown but nothing explicit is shown there; alcohol use and drunkenness; no smoking or drugs; and, lying, stealing, thoughts about murder, betrayal but mostly rebuked in some way.
Talk About It
Questions for the drive home, the dinner table, or the youth group.
Prospera must decide whether to punish those who betrayed her or forgive them. What does Christian forgiveness require, and what does it not require?
Ephesians 4:31–32 · Matthew 18:21–35The film presents magic as a power Prospera eventually gives up. Why might Scripture warn us against occult practices, and what should we pursue instead?
Deuteronomy 18:10–12 · Philippians 4:8Miranda’s future shapes Prospera’s choices. How can love for family become wise protection rather than control?
Ephesians 6:4 · Proverbs 22:6Several characters must face betrayal, selfishness, and the consequences of their choices. How does repentance differ from merely regretting what we have done?
2 Corinthians 7:10 · Psalm 51:10–12The Final Word
Visually stunning and morally serious, The Tempest gives Shakespeare’s story of forgiveness a rich cinematic life. Its magic, nudity, innuendo, and difficult language call for discernment with younger viewers. For teenagers and adults ready for Shakespeare, this is WORTH THE TRIP — AGES 13 AND UP.
