“Serve God, love me and mend.” Words to live by, words to love with—and the words of William Shakespeare in his play, “Much Ado About Nothing.” Hundreds of years later his dialogue is still delicious, if we have ears to hear. And eyes to see. Especially when his play becomes film, and makes its way into our local cinema. Long lovers of the film made by Kenneth Branagh twenty years ago, starring Emma Thompson, Kate Beckinsale, Denzel Washington, Keanu Reeves, Michael Keaton, and Branagh himself, we decided to see the latest version last night. Directed by Josh Whedon and filmed entirely in his home in Santa Monica, it too is faithful to Shakespeare’s dialogue—but the story is modernized, and so the setting is contemporary, which makes less sense of the story with its princes and all. I was disappointed. Not in the bard, but in the creative vision of Whedon. For example, he chose his favorite actors, and maybe they have served him well in the past. But they pale in comparison with the liveliness of Branagh et al, who in their persons brought passion to their parts in a way that Whedon seems unable to imagine. We ached for the farce embodied in Keaton’s character, and the spunk of Branagh. Shakespeare brought forth a story of Everyman and Everywoman, “a skirmish of wit” as he put it—and while his dialogue perennially ensures that, the actors at large don’t pull it off here. I still loved the story, and we all should. Rom-coms of every size echo off of Shakespeare, and none is better than “Much Ado About Nothing.” We feel deeply, we laugh uproariously, we long longingly, all in the name of love. The best stories are always the truest stories, the ones where we can see ourselves, glorious ruins that we are. Almost angels, and yet so very clay-footed we are. The same is true of the best songs, always, and more recently Mumford and Sons have offered a ballad for the ages in “Sigh No More,” musically musing over this same story, and their insight into the artfulness and ache of love is profound. Shakespeare was a genius for the generations. He saw into the heart of life, and the heart of love, understanding that Man is a giddy thing. Everyone one of us. For windows into both films, here are links: movies.yahoo/movie/much-ado-about-nothing-2013/trailers/much-ado-nothing-trailer-173033169.html movieclips/6qM3E-much-ado-about-nothing-movie-trailer-1/ And to Mumford and Sons: youtube/watch?v=6vgknO1zOcY
Posted on: Thu, 04 Jul 2013 10:15:50 +0000
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