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ivyficI rewatched Kenneth Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing last week. I still love that movie.
- Claudio is a jealous, possessive, abusive psychopath. Seriously. He's going to spend the entire rest of his marriage to Hero throwing her around every time another guy looks at her. True to the social mores of the time and all that, but I wouldn't wish that husband on anyone.
- The first wedding scene still makes me cry. And Beatrice and Benedick's confessions. Thompson and Branagh are brilliant in those roles. (Strange that my two favorite Shakespeare movies—this and Elizabeth Taylor's Taming of the Shrew—both star married couples heading rapidly for divorce.)
- At this age I'm a little more emotionally removed from the text than I was when it first came out, which means that I'm a little more aware of the plot contrivances. I kept watching a scene and going—really? That's your plan? You're going to wear a mask and pretend to be Claudio and confess your love to Hero and then hand her over…cause there's nothing that could possibly go wrong there? The intercessor never just takes the girl for himself, obviously. Like, oh, my ancestor John Alden did.
- Keanu Reeves gets a lot of flack for this role. I do understand why—he's not very good in it. I get what Branagh was trying to do, though, bringing a little modern Hollywood to show that Shakespeare isn't just for stuffy English actors. But—there's barely any character there for Reeves to play. I mean, Don John actually says, "I am a villain." All he does is twirl his mustache. He exists simply to create the nothing that there is much ado about. So I think Reeves deserves a little break for not putting in a stellar performance, there. I do have to wonder who came up with the blocking, though. Hmm…lets have Don John's male servant give his shirtless master a backrub, then have Don John leap off the table and grab his face, then have someone walk in on the little tableau… Nope. Nothing homoerotic there!
- When I was a kid, Michael Keaton as Dogbert was hilarious to me. Now he kind of annoys the crap out of me. But I think that character was written to do that, so, good show.
What really makes it work, though, is Beatrice and Benedick. I loved the comedy when I first saw it. Now I love the little hints that they had a previous romance, which fell apart, which they're both still a little hurt over, which makes it possible for both of them to go from hating each other to loving each other at just a hint that the other person loves them. Without the background, that switch would be ludicrous. But with that, and just a few lines from Beatrice, you can get a whole picture of what must have happened between them before. It's a reunion romance! My favorite kind.
I really wish Benedick had gotten a chance to beat the snot out of Claudio, though, before everything resolved into its inevitable happy ending. Claudio gets off way too easy. Oh, everything's okay because he's sorry? And not even sorry that Hero's dead, sorry that she died a virgin. Pbthththth.
- Claudio is a jealous, possessive, abusive psychopath. Seriously. He's going to spend the entire rest of his marriage to Hero throwing her around every time another guy looks at her. True to the social mores of the time and all that, but I wouldn't wish that husband on anyone.
- The first wedding scene still makes me cry. And Beatrice and Benedick's confessions. Thompson and Branagh are brilliant in those roles. (Strange that my two favorite Shakespeare movies—this and Elizabeth Taylor's Taming of the Shrew—both star married couples heading rapidly for divorce.)
- At this age I'm a little more emotionally removed from the text than I was when it first came out, which means that I'm a little more aware of the plot contrivances. I kept watching a scene and going—really? That's your plan? You're going to wear a mask and pretend to be Claudio and confess your love to Hero and then hand her over…cause there's nothing that could possibly go wrong there? The intercessor never just takes the girl for himself, obviously. Like, oh, my ancestor John Alden did.
- Keanu Reeves gets a lot of flack for this role. I do understand why—he's not very good in it. I get what Branagh was trying to do, though, bringing a little modern Hollywood to show that Shakespeare isn't just for stuffy English actors. But—there's barely any character there for Reeves to play. I mean, Don John actually says, "I am a villain." All he does is twirl his mustache. He exists simply to create the nothing that there is much ado about. So I think Reeves deserves a little break for not putting in a stellar performance, there. I do have to wonder who came up with the blocking, though. Hmm…lets have Don John's male servant give his shirtless master a backrub, then have Don John leap off the table and grab his face, then have someone walk in on the little tableau… Nope. Nothing homoerotic there!
- When I was a kid, Michael Keaton as Dogbert was hilarious to me. Now he kind of annoys the crap out of me. But I think that character was written to do that, so, good show.
What really makes it work, though, is Beatrice and Benedick. I loved the comedy when I first saw it. Now I love the little hints that they had a previous romance, which fell apart, which they're both still a little hurt over, which makes it possible for both of them to go from hating each other to loving each other at just a hint that the other person loves them. Without the background, that switch would be ludicrous. But with that, and just a few lines from Beatrice, you can get a whole picture of what must have happened between them before. It's a reunion romance! My favorite kind.
I really wish Benedick had gotten a chance to beat the snot out of Claudio, though, before everything resolved into its inevitable happy ending. Claudio gets off way too easy. Oh, everything's okay because he's sorry? And not even sorry that Hero's dead, sorry that she died a virgin. Pbthththth.
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Date: 2010-07-27 11:41 am (UTC)