Among the supporting players, the standouts include Maloney as the tragicomical Roderigo, who loves Desdemona neither wisely nor too well, and Anna Patrick, the director's sister-in-law, as the blunt-spoken Emilia, Iago's wife and Desdemona's servant. Emilia, of course, is the one who helps Iago in the matter of the incriminating handkerchief. Like just about everybody else in Othello, she's a basically decent person who is all too easily ensnared in her husband's evil. He is simply too smart for their own good.
Othello. Directed by Oliver Parker. With Laurence Fishburne, Kenneth Branagh and Irene Jacob. Rated R. 123 minutes.