MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING Full disclosure: I'm a Shakespeare geek. I read Shakespeare for pleasure. Really. I just finished Othello and slogged through Richard II. I've seen a number of performances, and many of the movies. I'm game for Shakespeare anytime, anyplace, anywhere. So if some Hollywood big shot wants to make a movie based on a Shakespeare play, I am likely to go see it, and enjoy it. So I went, and I did.
More full disclosure, I had never seen a performance of Much Ado nor had I ever read it, but I hope you will find the following synopsis helpful. Don Pedro, the Prince of Aragon, which is in Spain, has just defeated his bastard brother Don John in Sicily. The issues of the conflict and why in Sicily, is not much explained, but it is helpful to remember the Europeans are a quarrelsome lot. Try to think of it this way: A rich guy from Pasadena, goes down to Beverly Hills to slap down his bratty little brother, and after resolving their differences, they decide to have a party in Santa Monica.
None of that's important by the way, It's all back-story, but it does give me the opportunity to say that the movie is set in Santa Monica, apparently at director Joss Whedon's house (very Mediterranean so it fits) and in the present day. I do think it will give the newbie viewer a bit of an anchor because for the first 20 minutes of the movie I was doing a lot of who the hell are these people and what are they doing.
The Peoples Republic of Santa Monica should have a governor and it does Leonato (Clark Gregg) who has a daughter Hero (Jillian Morgese) and a niece Beatrice (Amy Acker) and together they extend their hospitality to Don Pedro, (Reed Diamond) his trusted aides Claudio (Fran Kranz) and Benedick (Alexis Denisof) and of course the dissolute bastard brother Don John (Sean Maher).
Claudio falls in love with Hero at first sight, and vice versa. Too shy to pursue the young lady, Don Pedro intervenes on Claudio's behalf and in no time, they are engaged and a wedding planed forthwith. This relationship between Claudio and Hero is the through line of the play but the fireworks are provided by Benedick and Beatrice.
These two will set the template for romantic comedy for the next few centuries and undoubtedly beyond. Of course, they hate each other at first, or rather they want everyone to think they hate each other, but by the end of scene one we, the audience know, and all of the characters in the play know, that these two got to get together.
Much of the comedy of Much Ado is derived from the contrivances, schemes, and deceptions (there is a lot of deception in this movie) of all the characters as they try to make Benedick and Beatrice see the truth about each other.
The piker in all this merriment is Don John who seems to be a generally nasty sort, conspires with his aides to impugn the integrity of Hero's virginity.
Shakespeare can't seem to resist a dark turn when one presents itself, but this gives him the opportunity to introduce one of his classic comic characters, Dogberry (Nathan Fillion) the local constable. A marvelous satire of minor bureaucratic pomposity, Dogberry will mangle the language,confuse the issues, and befuddle all those around him. Nevertheless, he will bumble and stumble toward the truth of the goings on at Casa Leonato.
Story has it that director Joss Whedon and his friends used to sit around the house and read Shakespeare, and finally decided to make a movie of one of his plays. This story is a little cringe worthy because it suggests a self indulgent march of the dilettantes, but I don't think that happened here. This is a bunch of professional actors and filmmakers that put this piece together (in twelve days I'm told) and I for one am glad they did.
Whedon knows that a successful romantic comedy must be funny, and Whedon uses a confident hand with the staging to supplement Shakespeare's comic scenes and witty dialogue with sight gags and even slapstick. He does this with aplomb and panache. And it's funny.
The acting is first rate really, but I suppose Amy Acker's Beatrice is the most fetching. She has sensual good looks and she shows she can dominate a scene, and if you are going to play Beatrice you better be able to. Diamond's Don Pedro is notable, especially since the last I saw Diamond was as a street tough detective in "Homicide". It just shows that an actor can be versatile if he stays dedicated to his craft. Denisof's Benedick is also admirable; I particularly liked his scene on the back steps trying to compose his poem to Beatrice and being frustrated by a bad rhyming pattern. I think Shakespeare may have been laughing at himself a little, since he was known to make a bad rhyme from time to time.
People are intimidated by Shakespeare, they are afraid of his usage of the language, that they won't understand it. I don't understand all of it either, but I do know that Shakespeare was enough of a dramatist to know how to keep things moving. He can even be abrupt, and this is a pretty complicated story, but the action speaks for itself.Give Whedon credit too, you will know what's going on. You may miss a few words but you have to be sleeping if you don't get the gist of each and every scene.
People, all kinds of people, have loved this play for 400 years. Give it a chance, you will too.
More full disclosure, I had never seen a performance of Much Ado nor had I ever read it, but I hope you will find the following synopsis helpful. Don Pedro, the Prince of Aragon, which is in Spain, has just defeated his bastard brother Don John in Sicily. The issues of the conflict and why in Sicily, is not much explained, but it is helpful to remember the Europeans are a quarrelsome lot. Try to think of it this way: A rich guy from Pasadena, goes down to Beverly Hills to slap down his bratty little brother, and after resolving their differences, they decide to have a party in Santa Monica.
None of that's important by the way, It's all back-story, but it does give me the opportunity to say that the movie is set in Santa Monica, apparently at director Joss Whedon's house (very Mediterranean so it fits) and in the present day. I do think it will give the newbie viewer a bit of an anchor because for the first 20 minutes of the movie I was doing a lot of who the hell are these people and what are they doing.
The Peoples Republic of Santa Monica should have a governor and it does Leonato (Clark Gregg) who has a daughter Hero (Jillian Morgese) and a niece Beatrice (Amy Acker) and together they extend their hospitality to Don Pedro, (Reed Diamond) his trusted aides Claudio (Fran Kranz) and Benedick (Alexis Denisof) and of course the dissolute bastard brother Don John (Sean Maher).
Claudio falls in love with Hero at first sight, and vice versa. Too shy to pursue the young lady, Don Pedro intervenes on Claudio's behalf and in no time, they are engaged and a wedding planed forthwith. This relationship between Claudio and Hero is the through line of the play but the fireworks are provided by Benedick and Beatrice.
These two will set the template for romantic comedy for the next few centuries and undoubtedly beyond. Of course, they hate each other at first, or rather they want everyone to think they hate each other, but by the end of scene one we, the audience know, and all of the characters in the play know, that these two got to get together.
Much of the comedy of Much Ado is derived from the contrivances, schemes, and deceptions (there is a lot of deception in this movie) of all the characters as they try to make Benedick and Beatrice see the truth about each other.
The piker in all this merriment is Don John who seems to be a generally nasty sort, conspires with his aides to impugn the integrity of Hero's virginity.
Shakespeare can't seem to resist a dark turn when one presents itself, but this gives him the opportunity to introduce one of his classic comic characters, Dogberry (Nathan Fillion) the local constable. A marvelous satire of minor bureaucratic pomposity, Dogberry will mangle the language,confuse the issues, and befuddle all those around him. Nevertheless, he will bumble and stumble toward the truth of the goings on at Casa Leonato.
Story has it that director Joss Whedon and his friends used to sit around the house and read Shakespeare, and finally decided to make a movie of one of his plays. This story is a little cringe worthy because it suggests a self indulgent march of the dilettantes, but I don't think that happened here. This is a bunch of professional actors and filmmakers that put this piece together (in twelve days I'm told) and I for one am glad they did.
Whedon knows that a successful romantic comedy must be funny, and Whedon uses a confident hand with the staging to supplement Shakespeare's comic scenes and witty dialogue with sight gags and even slapstick. He does this with aplomb and panache. And it's funny.
The acting is first rate really, but I suppose Amy Acker's Beatrice is the most fetching. She has sensual good looks and she shows she can dominate a scene, and if you are going to play Beatrice you better be able to. Diamond's Don Pedro is notable, especially since the last I saw Diamond was as a street tough detective in "Homicide". It just shows that an actor can be versatile if he stays dedicated to his craft. Denisof's Benedick is also admirable; I particularly liked his scene on the back steps trying to compose his poem to Beatrice and being frustrated by a bad rhyming pattern. I think Shakespeare may have been laughing at himself a little, since he was known to make a bad rhyme from time to time.
People are intimidated by Shakespeare, they are afraid of his usage of the language, that they won't understand it. I don't understand all of it either, but I do know that Shakespeare was enough of a dramatist to know how to keep things moving. He can even be abrupt, and this is a pretty complicated story, but the action speaks for itself.Give Whedon credit too, you will know what's going on. You may miss a few words but you have to be sleeping if you don't get the gist of each and every scene.
People, all kinds of people, have loved this play for 400 years. Give it a chance, you will too.