When I first heard Kenneth Branagh was going to make this play as a 30s musical, I was thrilled. As strange as it may sound, it's a terrific concept - the idea of Shakespeare's language and bursting into song not being mutually exclusive. And in fact, I was given the soundtrack (with dialog) of this movie before it came out, and it all seemed to work well and sound quite charming. Well, the music works, mostly. But it's about the only thing in the movie that does work.
I like Branagh's work in general very much despite its rough edges, but this movie is an inexplicable failure -- not due to the concept or music or even the slightness of the play itself, but wholly due to Branagh's strangely uninspired direction. The indifferent acting from a few of the leads is forgivable; the bad singing even more so; although the bad dancing is sometimes quite hard to forgive. But what really kills this movie is that it seems to totally lack Branagh's usual gusto as a filmmaker. The concept may be audacious, but the staging is completely undercooked. Right from the opening credits, which are just weirdly static -- headshots against red satin?? -- where is the Ken Branagh who gave us those fantastic opening credit sequences from DEAD AGAIN and MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING?? (Another early warning signal of this movie's inertness is an early scene where a guy is riding a bicycle so slowly that it's a wonder he doesn't fall over.) The camera work is boring, the atmosphere of the settings extremely artificial and static, giving the whole movie a stilted, deadened air that doesn't remind one of a 30s screwball comedy so much as it reminds one of a... bad movie from any era. None of the actors (Branagh included) seem to know why they're there; nobody seems to be having any FUN (except maybe Adrian Lester). Plus, the movie looks as if it were made on a painfully low budget - it probably had a higher budget than actually seems to appear on the screen. Only rarely do we get the slightest glint of the old Ken Branagh - the beginning of the final musical number is very nice and has real feeling.
This is probably the one movie I've seen where, when it was over, I desperately wished for a DO-OVER... although those don't happen in Hollywood and certainly not for quirky little Shakespeare movies. What a lovely and unusual concept for a Shakespeare movie, down the drain because of weirdly bad direction by a guy who, even if he's not Orson Welles, usually has a mastery of the basics. Come back to us, Ken...
I like Branagh's work in general very much despite its rough edges, but this movie is an inexplicable failure -- not due to the concept or music or even the slightness of the play itself, but wholly due to Branagh's strangely uninspired direction. The indifferent acting from a few of the leads is forgivable; the bad singing even more so; although the bad dancing is sometimes quite hard to forgive. But what really kills this movie is that it seems to totally lack Branagh's usual gusto as a filmmaker. The concept may be audacious, but the staging is completely undercooked. Right from the opening credits, which are just weirdly static -- headshots against red satin?? -- where is the Ken Branagh who gave us those fantastic opening credit sequences from DEAD AGAIN and MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING?? (Another early warning signal of this movie's inertness is an early scene where a guy is riding a bicycle so slowly that it's a wonder he doesn't fall over.) The camera work is boring, the atmosphere of the settings extremely artificial and static, giving the whole movie a stilted, deadened air that doesn't remind one of a 30s screwball comedy so much as it reminds one of a... bad movie from any era. None of the actors (Branagh included) seem to know why they're there; nobody seems to be having any FUN (except maybe Adrian Lester). Plus, the movie looks as if it were made on a painfully low budget - it probably had a higher budget than actually seems to appear on the screen. Only rarely do we get the slightest glint of the old Ken Branagh - the beginning of the final musical number is very nice and has real feeling.
This is probably the one movie I've seen where, when it was over, I desperately wished for a DO-OVER... although those don't happen in Hollywood and certainly not for quirky little Shakespeare movies. What a lovely and unusual concept for a Shakespeare movie, down the drain because of weirdly bad direction by a guy who, even if he's not Orson Welles, usually has a mastery of the basics. Come back to us, Ken...