That nice all-American boy Josh (Pearl Harbor) Hartnett grabs a peach of a role, a devious high-school Iago-character called Hugo, in this surprisingly intelligent and successful teen reworking of Shakespeare's Othello.

Martin (West Wing) Sheen plays his dad, the school basketball coach, who seems to prefer the Othello character, Odin (ER's Mekhi Phifer), sparking Iago's, er, Hugo's insane jealousy.

There's also room in the plot for John Heard as the Dean and Julia Stiles as his pretty daughter, Desi (Desdemona), who's also O's girlfriend.

Furrowing his single, worringly wayward eyebrow, Hartnett is creepy and convincing as he subtly insinuates his way into Odin's mind.

He casts doubts on Desi's fidelity, and Phifer is entirely credible as a gullible sports hero, betrayed by his slimy confidante.

Commendably, the film makes you believe in its characters and their tragedy, though, oddly, the film is at its weakest when it feels compelled to stay faithful to Shakespeare.

A must for all teens doing Othello at school, and it's certainly an improvement on the 1995 film of the play with Laurence Fishburne.

Aidan Conway