L) Much Ado About Nothing

The problems that I have with this film start with the original
script. One night I picked up The Complete Shakespeare just to read a
few pages, I turned to this play and couple of hours later put it down
finished, and though to myself "is that it!". I still find it hard to
believe that the same person wrote KING LEAR, MUCH ADO was predictable,
formula, without challenge or originality, and the "comedy" scenes were
some of the worst.

The film didn't start out too well with a comical gratuitous nude scene
with the women desperately washing ready for the men coming home from
... something ... ? And then Emma Thompson sang the nauseating "Hey
Nonny Nonny". The highlights of this composition include the "amusing"
deck-chair scene, Branaghs "comedy" Spanish accent, THE GOOD LIFE's own
Dicky Briers (who isn't too bad really but it was impossible to banish
the phantom of Jerry and Margot hovering round with a gin and tonic)
and Ben Elton playing Pythonesque airhorse to Michael Keaton's Benny
Hill impression, I still wonder which film he thought he was in.

The only two performances which were OK were by Denzel Washington and
Keanu Reeves, Denzel was a fairly standard princely type ... er ...
Prince, and Keanu survived mainly by trying to play it as straight and
moody as possible (although I could not suppress the occasional visions
of Bill and Ted).

The real problem lies with Kenneth Branagh's reputation as a gifted
Shakespearean actor. I am not a fan of Shakespeare, and I am not an
English scholar, but it seems blindingly obvious to me that the two
central character start by hating each other, then, through their
friends' psychology games begin to like each other, then FINALLY to
love. When each first mistakenly discovers that the other is in love
with them they simply question their own feeling, they do NOT
immediately fall head over heels in love in return (literally in
Branaghs case - the fountain scene).

Frankly I found the whole thing an embarrassment. If you want to see
this play done well watch the BBC version starring Cheri Lunghi.