Ultimately, the problem lies not so much in miscast parts as in clashing styles of acting. For example, while the shifting sets of relationships among the lovers are mostly believable, Friel and Flockhart have such different styles that we never really believe for a second that this Helena and Hermia are close friends. In the end, however, the film completely belongs to Kevin Kline's Bottom. Kline is such a superior actor that Hoffman is able to take some real risks with the character, giving him a depth that is only hinted at in the play. Hoffman gives this Bottom a wife who, though silent, clearly disapproves of both her husband's pomposity and his delusions of theatrical grandeur.
Titania has a quality of wistful longing to it that is absent in most productions.
Kline, who specializes in poking fun at hamminess while occasionally indulging in it himself, brings a vibrant new layer of feeling to the greatest of Shakespeare's hams. Hoffman's other extremely successful interpolation comes in the Mechanicals' production, when Flute as Thisby is speaking over the body of Bottom's mostly dead Pyramus. In a moment of inspired spontaneity, Flute decides to play it straight and moves the audience to tears with Thisby's grief. As played by the superb Sam Rockwell, Flute's moment is a metatheatrical kick in the pants. It reminds us not only of the play's emphasis on artifice and theatricality, but it reminds Flute's audience of newlyweds just how thin the line between tragedy and comedy is, and how close the Lovers actually came to inflicting some serious harm upon one another.