Much Ado About Nothing

Shakespeare's Play: Much Ado About Nothing, 1598-99, at the height of Shakespeare's career.

Definitive versions: Well, we're watching them. Joss Whedon has also produced a version. It is apparently running the film festival circuit. When it comes out on DVD, we will review it!

Retelling: Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing, Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare Retold)

MIKE SAYS  this play is one of my absolute favorites.  I love the language, the quips. The attraction- charged rivalry is pure fun.  That the play works both on the basis on language (as the Branagh version proves) and the story (which Shakespeare Retold focuses on) shows just how exceptional it is.

The Benedict and Beatrice relationship is fantastic, and finding two actors that play off of each other so well is the key to making it work, and thankfully both versions have this in bunches.

The most impressive thing for me is that the Retold version chooses to preserve the language far more than it has any reason to, far more than Shrew did.  That it makes this work just shows Shakespeare's mastery of capturing humanity.  He didn't just create characters, he caught a snapshot of life and spirit in each role.

I like that the Retold version goes with a far more realistic approach. Hero needs time to get over the trauma (whereas Shakespeare's heroines were sometimes quick to forgive), but Beatrice and Benedict don't let it bother them.  It doesn't matter WHAT brought them together; once they are, they like it, and make a conscious choice to keep it.

Branagh's version still remains my favorite, but perhaps only because it's so darn WATCHABLE.  Shakespeare was a genius, but one doesn't turn on Hamlet when he's needing a little drama, subterfuge and action.  Much Ado, however, is always good for a laugh.

However, it's hard to compete with the last line of Retold . . . "What are we doing here again?"

KATE SAYS this play is exuberant!! There is no other word for it. Both film versions just dance, jig, gambol, chuckle their way off the screen.

I LOVE the music. I'm especially fond of Patrick Doyle's score for Branagh's version--it is possibly the SECOND soundtrack I added to my collection. And I happen to adore Big Band Music: the soundtrack for the Shakespeare Retold version is sing-along enchanting.

Plus I like a lot of the actors in both (isn't Billie Piper a pistol?). Damian Lewis greatly amuses me (interesting that both Benedicks are sandy blonds). Sarah Parish is hilarious. Emma Thompson speaks Shakespeare as if she's been doing it from the cradle. Branagh speaks it like it is modern English. And Denzel just looks fine. And the "security guards" in both are completely amusing although in totally different ways.

Branagh did have the extra challenge of non-Shakespeare-trained actors. Denzel Washington pulls it off since he sounds good saying anything. Robert Sean Leonard pulls it off through sheer cuteness (he is a good actor in general) and Keanu Reeves pulls it off because his character doesn't need to say much (I will say that the villain in the Shakespeare Retold version, the excellent Derek Riddell, is far more chilling in his villainy than Reeves; however, in general, the villain of Much Ado is not that important: the play is more about people being susceptible to doubt and jealousy than to the villain being brought to judgment).

The play has always suffered from the wedding scene. Claudio's denunciation of Hero, even by sixteenth/seventeenth century standards, is harsh and unnecessary. But then, that's the point! That's why BOTH Beatrices can snarl that great line: "I would eat his heart!" Of course, both Claudios are truly repentant. But--can you say, "High maintenance husband?"

That aside--and the Shakespeare Retold version handles Claudio's outcome fairly well--the relationship between Benedict and Beatrice is the best example of Shakespeare's timelessness. Sure he was a product of his culture, but he also produced these positively modern characters who sound like the Thin Man couple exchanging quips. Or Bones and Booth. The classic relationship of Benedict and Beatrice never dies.