Much Ado About Nothing (1993)

Amused by the contempt they share for one another, the friends of a confirmed bachelor and confirmed spinster conspire to make each believe that the other has romantic designs on him/her in this big screen adaptation of one of William Shakespeare's most popular comedies. Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson are both excellent as the two cynics turned lovers, sprouting Shakespeare's witty dialogue in a very natural manner and the fast paced banter between them is easily the high point of the film. The plot is more complicated than just that though with a spiteful friend of the couple also conspiring to break up the engagement of his best friend to a woman that he would rather have to himself. This angle is unfortunately far less interesting than everyone tricking Branagh and Thompson into romancing one another and yet the subplot soon gains centre focus. It also does not help that Robert Sean Leonard, who was so great in 'Dead Poets Society', is awkwardly cast here as the man tricked out of his impending marriage, though the actor who seems least comfortable overall here is Keanu Reeves, who looks stunned and dazed half the time. And yet, while the supporting cast varies in effectiveness, Brian Blessed is always great to have on hand, and with both Branagh and Thompson very much in their element, this is a fairly fun film.

When it came to this Shakespearean story's cast, it was firstly Micheal Keaton, then Keanu Reeves, and then Kenneth Branagh (in that order) who I'd say stank to the 10th, 9th, and 8th power.As this film's story goes - Young lovers Hero and Claudio are to be wed in one week. To pass the time this supremely bored, meddlesome couple conspire with Don Padro to set a "lover's trap" for Benedick, an arrogant, confirmed bachelor, and Beatrice, his favourite sparring partner.In the meantime, the evil Don John conspires to break up Hero and Claudio's wedding by accusing Hero of infidelity.Uh.... And wasn't this film called "Much Ado About Nothing"? Yep. It sure was. And, that's exactly what it was most certainly all about... NOTHING!!

The play is probably the first "romantic comedy"/date movie, as we understand it today, with all the necessary plot points:-boy meets girl; -boy falls in love with girl; -girl falls in love with boy; -momentary happiness; -something bad happens, either by misunderstanding or deliberate misconduct from someone; -redemption, clarification of what went wrong, with a public manifestation of love on all parts. happy end.This is what you find in pretty much any common date movie. But of course here we have Shakespeare, so the language is better and the narrative devices are all better pulled off, and the whole structure makes sense:-masked parties where no one knows to whom they are speaking, where messages can, because of that, be misunderstood;-dialogues intended to be overheard by someone who doesn't know he is being framed-momentary breaking of happiness through deceit (John the Bastard) by showing a sex scene which is not exactly what it looks like;-the undoing of all the mistakes comes through a "masked" wedding, again with a bride who is not who she was told to be, after the lie came out that she was actually dead.-"…about nothing". Nothing sounded like Noting in Shakespeare's days, and "noting" meant something like gossip in modern English. the title is not exactly what it sounds…Happiness comes to everybody when the misunderstandings are undone, the mischiefs found out, the liars punished. The story of the characters evolves parallel to the inner structures of the play. that's the beauty of it.But this is a play, theatre, which means we, viewers, can't be deceived the way the characters are. Only cinema would give writers that chance and nowadays it is pretty standard that sometimes we see stuff that later we will find out to be wrong. What a screenwriter Shakespeare would have been…What i love here is the energy between Branagh and Thompson, the 2 real actors in the film. I think this film is more about the celebration of their relation that it is about translating Shakespeare to cinema language. So Kenneth chose the closest Shakespeare (probably) ever got to screen-writing, and placed himself and Emma at the passionate center of this world.Branagh directs, this passion gets also behind the camera, no one is more sweetly photographed as Thompson. And he is a marvelous theatre actor, excessive but believable, articulate but fluid, choreographed but still passionate. This film is a celebration itself, a party of sorts. I enjoy it as such.

Kenneth Branagh's adaptation of Shakespeare's MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING is nothing short of astounding. With one exception, every cast member brought their A-game, resulting in a movie that is overflowing with emotion and humor. Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson play Benedick and Beatrice, Denzel Washington plays Don Pedro and Michael Keaton does an excellently weird interpretation of Dogberry. The only downside is that Keanu Reeves is stuck in the thankless role of Don John, but fortunately the role isn't that substantial. Other aspects of the movie are just as impressive, from the on-location shooting in Tuscany to the score and a few beautiful songs. Shakespeare has rarely been so fun! A must-see for Shakespeare fans and people who like romantic comedies.