Much Ado about Nothing (Cambridge School Shakespeare) by William Shakespeare Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Much Ado about Nothing (Cambridge School Shakespeare)
Book Review: 'Converting all your sounds of woe...oh..into hey...nonny...NONNY!'
Summary: 5 Stars
Kenneth Branagh's adaption of Much Ado About Nothing is a sheer delight to watch. I first saw it six years ago to prepare for a performance of it at school. The whole class fell in love with the film and while it may fall behind Hamlet or Romeo and Juliet in pure greatness, it soars ahead in sheer fun and exuberance.
As with Hamlet from 3 years later, the set is moved forward a few hundred years which just gives a fresh and vibrant touch to the film. Branagh himself plays Benedick and the chemistry between him and his (then) wife Emma Thompson as Beatrice makes you wonder why they could ever have split up. It is the war of words between these two that provide some of the main highlights of the film, especially their initial exchange:
Benedick: 'God keep your lady in that so some man may 'scape a pre-destinate scratched face'.
Beatrice: 'Scratching could not make it worse onto such a face as yours'.
Benedick: 'Well you are a rare parrot teacher'.
Beatrice: 'A bird of my tongue is better than a beast of your tongue'
Benedick: 'I wish my horse had the speed of your tongue'.
Branagh is also not afraid to throw in American actors and their effect ranges from the fish in water (Denzel Washington's Don Pedro), to the aquittable Keanu Reeves to the outstanding thespian but altogether too Yankee Robert Sean Leonard. However the real American star of the film is Michael Keaten with his sidekick Ben Elton who give a Monty Pythonesque twist to Dogsberry and Verges.
Branagh directs the film with style and his choice of music is outstanding. The all-star cast deliver as expected and it all adds up to one of my alltime favourite films.
One little criticism is the actual DVD itself. There are no extras whatsoever; it would have been nice to hear Branagh's views on the film. And although the scene selection by 'act' is quaint, it is annoying trying to find one particular scene.
Do not let that disuade you though, watching this film on a flip book while listening to it on tape would be enough. It is a beautifully written and performed play.
Book Review: a load of old pomp
Summary: 2 Stars
i decided to watch this film in prep for my Eng Lit/Lan Alevel. I felt there was not enough of the Don John (Keanu Reeves) character. I felt they could have had a much more darken evil character. he is teh reason for teh evil in the play after all. maybe Kenneth felt Keanu wouldnt be able to get his lines out through his beard (or maybe jealous at times, widely perceived hunky man may steal his thunder?).
speaking of Kenneth Branagh....he dominates teh whole movie! i got the feeling he really fancied himself. it was all him and no one else. I found Emma Thompson just about managed to do a good job trying in a role made difficult with an actor with such an ego (i'm supprised she fitted onto the screen with that huge head of his!). i felt her Beatrice was true to teh play.
i thought the gentleman who played Don Pedro (whatisname - cant remember) did a good job too bringing a sort of brotherly take the mickey jibes to Benedick. there was this great banter going on.
i felt Dogberry was just dirty when they could have had him being well to do and up his own bottom. this would have been funier. I found Claudio a bit wet between the ears. how can he possibly be a brave soldier? there is also the point he probably doesnt love Hero that much as he discards her so quickly in the play yet in the film he is a snibbering wreck.
when hero is about to get married and is supposedly caught out having an affair i found that scene rather silly. i felt the scene had not been managed enough. it just felt there were all these middle class actors who probably had a bit of time on their hands and fancied a jolly to rome.
Book Review: Much ado in the summer sunshine
Summary: 4 Stars
I thoroughly enjoyed this adaptation: I warmed to it immensely, helped no doubt by the summer Tuscany sun that illuminated the set.
I often have problems with Shakespeare and need to view subtitles to fully follow the plot, especially if it is fast-moving, but what really shone in this production is the natural ease in which words are spoken. There was no need for subtitles as Branagh and Co fully evinced their meaning in the nuances of their characters' voices and stance. Full credit to Branagh as adaptor and director for this success.
The rest of the cast are in top form, even the Hollywood stars. Emma Thompson is faultless, as usual. Shame there is no commentary from Branagh.
Book Review: Shakespeare was, is and will remain the best ever
Summary: 5 Stars
Shakespeare and his entangled love affairs are as famous as Dracula and his blood cult. But we recognize here the friar who advises a fake death to the girl and we remember that Romeo and Juliet came first in 1596. Shakespeare started with the tragedy around the clandestine marriage of the two heroes, and then moved on to a comedy that sounds at time very tragic, Much Ado About Nothing in 1598, and he doubles the merriment by having two weddings. And he will go on with As You Like It in 1600 and its four marriages under the auspices of the thrice crowned goddess Diana. And this was a model of perfection that he had kept from A Midsummer Night's Dream in 1594. But this present comedy could have been a drama at least if not a tragedy since the death being false, based on a false accusation what's more, could have led to a duel and one real death before being discovered as a fake, and it leads to the arrest of the villain who had arranged the fakery so that a happy love wedding was turned into a dramatic denunciation of the impurity of the bride. That's probably why he doubled the first line of action with a second that reminds us of The Taming of the Shrew (1593) and that second line will lead to the second marriage that will bring everyone, except the plotter, to merriment, gaiety and dancing. But this production is admirable because the setting of the play in a real garden and rich mansion in more or less renaissance clothing though it could be slightly more recent gives to the actors all the space they need to dance, play, hide, run, and many other things. The acting is admirable and they really make the language sing the way it should, sing joy as well as pain, sing sadness as well as happiness. Of course the language is also a little bit difficult but we get used to it very fast and we follow the music of it as well as the words, and the actors were directed into speaking as if they were singing, to the point of even having a failed attempt at real singing that sounds like a cat being disemboweled. And the final but suspended lack of clemency against the guilty plotter is there to remind us that everything may end with songs and dances, but there is always some drama to bring to an end sooner or later, and in that case outside the time limits of the play. But yet I always wonder about what such comedies, or tragedies like Romeo and Juliet, could look like in Shakespearean times when women were not allowed on the stage. So many girls played by teenagers must have been funny, with an echo in the play when Beatrice speaks of men with a beard or men without a beard and the latter are less of a man than she would ever like. That was said by a man without a beard in 1598. I guess we would find it funny and even maybe ridiculous today. But it should be attempted. Shakespeare played on the situation quite often with varying motivations.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines
Book Review: Too pleasant
Summary: 3 Stars
After the success of Branagh's stage version of this play, I was very disappointed with this film and suspect he was pressurised by those putting up the money to make it seems a wonderfully romantic experience from start to finish. Personally I felt that, for the first five minutes, I was bathing in warm honey and then that the enamel was being slowly scraped off all my teeth. Shakespeare's comedies always have a darker side and, unless that is addressed, the play becomes bland. It didn't help that so much of the filming took place in unremittingly gorgeous sunshine. As Peter Quince observes about production in 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', "There are two hard things in this play." Here the first hard thing is to to make Claudio, who has behaved apallingly to Hero, appear likeable when the stain is finally removed from her character; it is not enough to cast a handsome bloke, we must really believe that Claudio's repentance is deep and sincere; that what he has learned about himself means that he will never behave in so shallow and insensitive a way again. The second problem is to make Dogberry and the other members of the Watch appear funny. Branagh seemed to have no idea how to do this and the result was this group cavorted about as if they were young teenagers in the end of term romp. Embarrassing.