janedl Reviews

Listening (2003)

Poignant, beautiful

[8/10 · 24 September 2003]

Listening is a poignant, thoughtful and very beautiful little film, superbly acted by Paul McGann and Frances Barber, and gracefully directed by Kenneth Branagh. Branagh demonstrates how emotions are intensified and quickened in the absence of words, in a story about a man and woman who meet during a silent retreat. It's an original look at how words limit us, but also at missed opportunities for love and communication, with or without them. The photography is gorgeous, and the music very effective at heightening emotion.

How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog (2000)

Smart, funny and original

[10/10 · 23 February 2002]

How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog is a smart, funny, original comedy for grownups - a rare pleasure these days. The witticisms fly fast and furious, but Kenneth Branagh, as playwright Peter McGowan, has the verbal dexterity to toss them off naturally. It's a pleasure to be reminded of what a versatile and accomplished actor he is in non-Shakespearean roles. The main plot of the movie, which involves Peter's reluctance to have children, and his growing relationship with a neighbor child, flirts with sentimentality, but avoids it thanks to the sharp writing and performances. The style of the movie and its original, quirky subplots lift it well above the ordinary.

Love's Labour's Lost (2000)

Like a glass of champagne

[10/10 · 13 February 2000]

I saw Kenneth Branagh's new Shakespeare film, Love's Labour's Lost, at a London preview screening last month, and it's a delight. Elizabethan purists may moan that less than a third of Shakespeare's text makes it into the movie, but face it - Love's Labour's Lost is a minor romantic comedy which contains thickets of obscure wordplay. Branagh's decision to replace much of that dialogue with classic songs by Gershwin, Porter and others is quite inspired. The cast sings and dances more than competently (okay, maybe not quite up to Fred-and-Ginger standards), and it's impossible not to be swept up in the sheer giddy fun of it all. The ending, which wordlessly expands on Shakespeare's play, may be controversial, but I thought it worked, leaving the heart as well as the funnybone touched and satisfied.