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DVD Love's Labour's Lost
Having taken Shakespeare at his word on Hamlet (i.e., not cutting a single syllable out of a very long play), Kenneth Branagh selects a more radical approach with Love's Labour's Lost. Here the prolific director-star weeds out much of the play's dialogue and adds songs and dances of a decidedly modern bent. The King of Navarre (Alessandro Nivola, Nicolas Cage's wacko brother in Face/Off) and his three comrades (Branagh, Matthew Lillard, Adrian Lester) take a vow: no womanly distractions while they pursue their studies. Ah, but at that very moment, floating down a magical studio-built river, is the queen of France (Alicia Silverstone), accompanied by three ladies-in-waiting. You do the math. Branagh has set the tale on the eve of the Second World War, which allows for the inclusion of vintage pop songs, including "Cheek to Cheek," "The Way You Look Tonight," and a rousing chorus of "There's No Business Like Show Business," led by--who else?--Nathan Lane. The fact that most of the cast members are not accomplished song-and-dance folk is clearly meant to charm, but the results are spotty at best. Perhaps the most dynamic performer is Natascha McElhone (memorable from Ronin), whose aristocratic bearing and bottomless eyes lend a gravity to the material that is otherwise absent from Branagh's twinkly staging. The play contains some of Shakespeare's loveliest paeans to the language of love, yet Branagh seems to be in a hurry to juice everything up lest the audience lose interest. The labor shows. --Robert Horton
When Peter Brook put "A Midsummer Night's Dream" on a trapeze, I thought, "Bravo!" But this miasma of mixed messages sinks because it just doesn't work. What might have seemed like a great idea to combine classic songs like "They Can't Take That Away From Me" & "The Way You Look Tonight" and mix it with Shakespeare sinks like a stone here when mixed with WWII newsreels. The worst part of this film is that it fizzles rather than climaxes. About halfway through it becomes tedious and then dies as trivial.
It has pleasant moments because of a great cast. Brannagh's soft-shoe in the library is a great piece of choreography. Allesandro Nivola who played the psychotic brother of Nicholas Cage in "Face/Off" and the wild Brit rocker Ian who charms Frances MacDormand in "Laurel Canyon" shows his range as the King of Navarre and sings and dances terrifically. Natasha McElhone as Rosaline is also entrancing as she was opposite Brad Pitt in "The Devil's Own" or with Robert DeNiro in "Ronin." Timothy Spall who is one of the great character actors is funny as the mustached Don Armando. Nathan Lane is funny. When he falls flat on a stairwell in the deleted scenes, it's actually funnier than most of this comedy. Matthew Lillard who usually plays creepy characters as in "13 Ghosts" or oddballs like in "Scoobie Doo" shows a side I'd never seen. Adrien Lester as Dumaine who was great in "Primary Colors" and flitted briefly on the screen in "The Day After Tomorrow" sings and dances admirably. Alicia Silverstone from "Clueless" and "Beauty Shop" is lovely as the Princess of France. Unfortunately, the whole thing goes nowhere with each part more interesting than the whole. You could miss this one and your life will still be complete. This is one of the worst movies I've ever seen. Taxi!
Sheer exuberance and style
This is one of my favorite movies. The cast loved making it and it really shows. The cinematography is breathtaking in the dance sequences and the general flow of the film, with intercutting of pseudo-"Movietone" newsreels is great with never a dull moment, right until the climax of the film, which brings tears to my eyes almost every time I watch it. For me the highlights were "Heaven", "There's no business like showbusiness" and "They can't take that away from me". The whole production has a very stylish look and feel. I loved Brannagh's productions of "Much Ado About Nothing" and "Othello", but I love this one most of all.
Love's Labours Are Truly Lost in This Tepid Musical
Kenneth Branagh is a rarity: a truly great stage and screen actor. And so one wonders what he is doing wasting his talents adapting, directing and starring in an (musical!) adaptation of one of Shakespeare's least-loved plays, Love's Labours Lost.
Perhaps Branagh thought that like his film adaptations of Henry V, and to a certain extent, Much Ado About Nothing, he could again dish out Shakespeare to the masses. Not in this case. I'm sure the whole cast sang really hard, and danced really hard, and gosh darn it, just gave it their all, but there's a limit. The singing, and dancing in this movie is amateurish at best. At worst, it's, well, frankly appalling. Although better choreography and less self-conscious singing may have helped matters, experienced moviegoers may wonder why in God's name Branagh wanted to stage musical numbers made famous by such virtuosos as Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly. If you've seen American in Paris, Singin' in the Rain, or any of the Fred and Ginger musicals, you'll spend most of this movie cringing.
But what about Shakespeare? Does any of the Bard's poetry rise above this frothy mess of a musical? The answer to that is no, except when Branagh speaks. Then you suddenly remember that this man is one of the greatest Shakespearean actors of his generation, perhaps of all time. But these brilliant flashes of poetry are soon drowned out by another endless musical number. I could go on, but I won't. Let it suffice to say that there is really nothing to recommend this well-intended, yet hopelessly flawed musical adaptation save one person: Kenneth Branagh. And really, in all fairness, Branagh is the man responsible for the mess. So what should you do? Rent Branagh's Henry V, or Much Ado About Nothing, or, if you must see a musical, try Singin' in the Rain or Top Hat. But stay away from this movie unless you are a completist.
Kenneth Branagh's 1993 production of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing is a vigorous and imaginative work, cheerful and accessible for everyone. Largely the story of Benedick (Branagh) and Beatrice (Emma Thompson)--adversaries who come to believe each is trying to woo the other--the film veers from arched wit to ironic romps, and the two leads don't mind looking a little silly at times. But the plot is also layered with darker matters that concern the ease with which men and women fall into mutual distrust. Branagh has rounded up a mixed cast of stage vets and Hollywood stars, among the latter Denzel Washington and Michael Keaton, the latter playing a rather seedy, Beetlejuice-like version of Dogberry, king of malapropisms. The DVD release has optional full-screen and widescreen... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Kate Beckinsale - Keanu Reeves - Emma Thompson DVD Release Date: Released the 07 January 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Very few films come close to the brilliance Kenneth Branagh achieved with his first foray into screenwriting and direction. Henry V qualifies as a masterpiece, the kind of film that comes along once in a decade. He eschews the theatricality of Laurence Olivier's stirring, fondly remembered 1945 adaptation to establish his own rules. Branagh plays it down and dirty, seeing the bard's play through revisionist eyes, framing it as an antiwar story. Branagh gives us harsh close-ups of muddied, bloody men, and close-ups of himself as Henry, his hardened mouth and willful eyes revealing much about this land war. Not that the director-star doesn't provide lighter moments. His scenes introducing the French Princess Katherine (Emma Thompson) are toothsome. Bubbly, funny, enhanced by lovely... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Kenneth Branagh - Derek Jacobi Director(s): Kenneth Branagh DVD Release Date: Released the 18 July 2000 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Rarely has The Merchant of Venice, one of Shakespeare's most complex plays, looked as ravishingly sumptuous as in this adaptation, directed by Michael Radford (Il Postino). In a decadent version of renaissance Venice, a young nobleman named Bassanio (Joseph Fiennes, Shakespeare in Love) seeks to woo the lovely Portia (newcomer Lynn Collins), but lacks the money to travel to her estate. He seeks support from his friend, the merchant Antonio (Jeremy Irons, Reversal of Fortune); Antonio's fortune is tied up in sea ventures, so the merchant offers to borrow money from a Jewish moneylender, Shylock (Al Pacino, Dog Day Afternoon). But Shylock holds a grudge against Antonio, who has routinely treated the Jew with contempt, and demands that if the debt is not... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Al Pacino - Jeremy Irons - Joseph Fiennes - Lynn Collins Director(s): Michael Radford DVD Release Date: Released the 10 May 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Imagine a work by Shakespeare reduced to one of those pretty, glossy coffee-table picture books that have only a dollop of text alongside its sumptuous photographs, and you might have Michael Hoffman's adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream. This all-star version of Shakespeare's comedy is gorgeously shot in Tuscany, complete with a magical forest, breathtaking landscapes, beautiful villas, picturesque villages, stunning period costumes--oh wait, there's supposed to be a story here, too! Hoffman hijacks Shakespeare's basic premise but doesn't instill it with much more than surface shine and transplants it to turn-of-the-century Italy. Ergo, it's left up to the actors to find the heart and soul of this classic play, in which the fairies of the forest play mix and match... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Kevin Kline - Michelle Pfeiffer - Rupert Everett Director(s): Michael Hoffman DVD Release Date: Released the 17 April 2001 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Oliver Parker, a stage and film actor (Hellraiser), made his directorial debut with this scaled-back version of Shakespeare's play about the paranoid Moor, Othello (Laurence Fishburne), and his manipulative friend, Iago (Kenneth Branagh). Parker gets the story so lean he starts running a little short on the author's subtext, and if it's possible to overemphasize the banality of Iago's scheming and Othello's malleability, he does so. The director throws out what is universal in the story and makes it all seem merely ordinary, human, and unfortunate, which is the opposite of what watching Shakespeare should be. In the end, it's hard to care what these characters have done to one another. Branagh's Iago is a little flat and unfocused, while Fishburne is excellent as a quieter Othello... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Laurence Fishburne - Irène Jacob - Kenneth Branagh Director(s): Oliver Parker DVD Release Date: Released the 18 January 2000 Usually ships in 24 hours
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