much ado about nothing .
ah , how sweet the irony !
it’s accepted wisdom in some circles – among english literature nuts , mainly – that whenever a critic knocks shakespeare they are only doing so through ignorance .
he just doesn’t ” understand ” shakespeare , you will hear them say .
the bard’s work is apparently beyond criticism .
what a load of old cobblers .
if these arbiters of public taste think kenneth branaugh’s film of shakespeare’s ” comedy ” much ado about nothing is comedy in any modern sense of the word , it’s time to get a life .
get monty python .
get woody allen .
get john waters .
whatever .
just get a real taste of some clever , witty , risky comedy .
and banish this nonsense to where it belongs .
drama and tragedy was shakespeare’s strength .
to my sensibilities – and i’m no stick in the mud – much ado about nothing resonates with no spark whatsoever .
no kidding : this film ranks among the most embarrassing two hours i have ever spent in a cinema in my 20 years of movie going .
the only thing that stopped me walking out was loyalty to my lady friend , as this was our day out and i hadn’t seen her in ages .
but boy , does she owe me one !
i won’t spend too much time on the plot .
basically , we follow the trials and tribulations of two would-be couples – one young , the other older .
there’s some dark treachery amongst all this , but everyone is so awfully jolly that you’d hardly know it .
mind you , there’s nothing wrong with the basic story .
good romantic comedies based on similar premises abound .
nothing wrong with most of the cast , either .
branaugh , emma thompson and denzel washington are all talented performers .
the problem is the script , or more accurately , shakespeare’s original text .
light comedy shouldn’t be complex .
yet wrapped in elizabethan english , the dialogue becomes difficult to comprehend .
for this alone it will be a problem for modern audiences unschooled in shakespeare and in search of nothing more than a good , undemanding laugh .
the only laughs to escape my belly were brought on by the gloriously inept performance of keanu reeves , the actor once again miscast as a jealous half-brother or something .
but when dissected and understood , what it all boils down to is that this stuff is just so goddamn lame .
this is comedy so clean and nice and corny and so devoid of danger that it leaves this viewer totally cold .
ho , ho , ho , boy likes girl !
ho , ho , ho , men are such klutzes !
ho , ho , ho , she’s so awfully clumsy !
oh please !
there’s wit in here somewhere , i’m told .
i call it pretentious .
something lightweight striving to be something sophisticated through clever wordplay .
in the end , it’s cringeworthy .
watching some of the cinema patrons around me collapse with laughter made much ado about nothing a very weird movie going experience .
comedy ?
bah , humbug !