And a Hey, Nonny Nonny! (Much Ado About Nothing (DVD))

Name: TheChocolateLady

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Product:	Much Ado About Nothing (DVD)
Date:	08/05/06 (570 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very true to the original play, great performances, easy to understand, lovely settings

Disadvantages: Reeves and Washington weren't the best of the cast .

This is one of those films that just charm the pants off of you. It is, of course, Shakespeare, which might turn some people off. However, since its one of his comedies, that might just make it more interesting for you. Being Shakespeare, it has been made into movies many times - both for TV and for general release. But of all the different versions, I like this one the best, and here's why.

The story is basically one of love - discovering it and misunderstandings around it. According to IMDb, the plot summary is "Young lovers Hero and Claudio are to be married in one week. To pass the time, they conspire with Don Pedro to set a "lover's trap" for Benedick, an arrogant confirmed bachelor, and Beatrice, his favorite sparring partner. Meanwhile, the evil Don Jon conspires to break up the wedding by accusing Hero of infidelity." The film's action revolves around watching all these schemes play out.

First of all, we have a real star-studded, if strangely uneven, cast here. Benedick is played by the Shakespeare champion, Kenneth Branagh (he also directed this movie), and his love interest Beatrice is played to perfection by his then real-life wife, Emma Thompson. Richard Briers ("Monarch of the Glen") plays Hero's father, Signor Leonato, and we also get the amazing Brian Blessed as Antonio. The lovely Hero is played by Kate Beckinsale and her adored Claudio is Robert Sean Leonard. We also get some slightly unusual actors for Shakespeare with Denzel Washington playing Don Pedro of Aragon, and Keanu Reeves playing the evil Don John. And for some fun, we get a slightly "Beetlejuice" interpretation of Dogberry by Michael Keaton.

So why did I say that this was a strangely uneven cast? For several reasons, actually. Branagh and Thompson shine as the major stars here, and they are both truly in their element. Reeves and Washington, however, seemed like fish out of water with the iambic pentameter, and although Reeves is no stranger to evil and just barely pulls it off, Washington doesn't ever seem to get the hang of being an elegant prince. Still, one cannot fault Briers or Blessed, and this is probably due to their historic familiarity with the Bard's works. I have to say that Beckinsale and Leonard do very nice jobs with their parts, but the real surprise here is Keaton who provided one of the most off-the-wall, but fun, interpretations of Dogberry I've ever seen - and while he could have been over the top, I enjoyed watching him do this part immensely.

Although this may sound like it could be a recipe for disaster, I have to admit that Branagh was able to pull all these differently Shakespearean leveled actors into a real team. With whatever faults there may seem to be in this cast, Branagh has succeeded in overcoming them by getting the best performances out of his entire cast. So while on the surface one may shake ones head and think "oh, no!" the truth is you'll come away saying "how lovely".

But how does one achieve this? My tendency is to believe that Branagh directed this so that the actors would feel as comfortable with their lines as absolutely possible. In this way, the iambic pentameter seems to fade into the background and you get the feeling like the language they are speaking is very natural to them, despite any archaic words and phrases that are there. What I mean by this is that Branagh insisted on having the actors concentrate on the lines as full sentences, and not as poetic lines that rhymed. This isn't as difficult as it seems since Shakespeare was such a talented writer that he hardly ever let two sentences in a row come to their full stops at their rhyming words. In this way, the speech comes out more naturally since the pauses come at the end of the sentences and thoughts and not after the rhyming words. (Mind you, Denzel's accent was probably the most inconsistent part of this movie, but seeing as he wasn't playing all that large of a part, we can forgive him this minor trespass, since he looks very sexy in his costume.)

Of course, that isn't where the charm ends. This movie is also beautifully filmed, having much of it shot in Italy at the Villa Vignamaggio, Greve in Chianti, Florence, and Tuscany, Italy. I mean, really, how glamorous can you get? You don't really have to work all that hard to get a film shot in these places to look amazing. But even so, what a wise choice to take full advantage of such beauty and Branagh certainly knew how to do this. Of course, I wonder if the actors didn't have as much fun being in these places as they did filming the movie - since I can say with total certainty that they do seem to be enjoying themselves very much. And that's no little achievement, either.

Almost as an aside, I'd like to mention that I also liked the costumes in this movie. They seem very simple, very comfortable and very attractive. What's more, they certainly suit the scenery and nothing seems out of place. In fact, I'd also have to say that the make-up, hair styles and even the music all seem to blend into one smooth piece that just seems to run like clockwork from beginning to end. And by this I also have to say that with using almost the complete original script, this movie just slides right through from beginning to end, with almost no let-up in the action and something to attract your attention with every scene. And when you come right down to it, the most important thing is just that - keeping the audience's attention.

In conclusion, Branagh has a real masterpiece here (or should I say another masterpiece - as he's made many excellent films). With almost nothing to fault it, this film is a true joy to behold, is fun, entertaining and will grab your attention and not let you go until the final credits have run. If you don't want to buy the DVD (I bought it on VHS when it was first released), you should certainly take it out of your nearest library, since I highly recommend this film and give it a full five stars!

Thanks for reading!

Davida Chazan © May, 2006

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Technical Stuff:

The official website for this film has been closed down, or at least I couldn't find it. The closest I could find was the MGM site for their release of the DVD which can be found at http://www.mgm.com/title_title.do?title_star=MUCHA DOA

What I could find was the information about the DVD on Amazon.co.uk which is: Release Date: May 21, 1999, Classification: PG, Region 2 encoding (Europe, Japan, South Africa and the Middle East including Egypt), PAL, Widescreen, ASIN: B00004RCK2, Catalogue Number: EDV9021, price £9.97 or marketplace from £4.74
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Summary: Probably the best film version of this lovely Shakespeare play, and beautiful, too!