Much Ado About Nothing (1993) REVISIT

Hands down Much Ado is my favourite Shakespeare play. It's Three's Company style confusions, written with its hilarious one liners mixed with gorgeous love poetry, its analysis of gender politics and its glee in upending that, all come together into a play which I will enjoy no matter the production. I've seen it on stage and in a few films, but it is this movie which I feel captures the totality of everything delightful about Nothing. Branagh has crafted this as the quintessential embodiment of the work.

This sundrenched comedy of love is a joyous experience. We are dropped into a paradise, a verdant villa in the centre of Italy's most beautiful country, where this idyllic community does little but suck the marrow out of life. When the army comes back from battle, celebratory in victory as if war never had any effect but glory, the community and the army joyfully reunited, prepare to celebrate, communally bathing their tanned, lush bodies without shame. It is idyllic. The perfect centre for a tale of falling in love.

But it is this sort of love story which most grabs me. Shakespeare has set the typical set of lovers, young beautiful and passionate against a far more interesting pair, older, smarter, and more practical. And it is in their respectful wooing that some of the most gloriously romantic banter I have ever come across happens. Branagh along with his former real life wife Thompson are perfectly set for this. Both are more than capable of making the Bard's word trip off their tongues most naturally, as well as convincingly craft my favourite set of literary lovers of all time, the stubborn, the brilliant, the heroic Beatrice and Benedict who not only joust and parry their way into love but also together take on heroically what is wrong with their culture and their world.

But Branagh and Thompson aren't alone. This film of Much Ado is blessed with one of the most amazing casts ever, all gorgeous in the Italian sun (Keaton's dirty constable the exception) yet completely capable of tackling the play's script. Washington is the picture of beautiful nobility with all the presence and God given beauty that a prince should have. Reeves (the one week spot performance wise) is a swarthy and luscious villain who almost wins us over with his sweaty, naughty appeal. Beckinsale is young and pretty with only a hint of the more aggressive parts she would take on later while paired with Leonard in all his adorable boyish earnestness.

The cast is up for the parts of play which get more serious while also being up for playing the humour so well. The play is a bit of an emotional rollercoaster yet if all flows so smoothly here. The joy is even richer for the cast's ability to make us feel the sadness. Layered into this story is a thread of how women are abused and exploited by men, and there is some justice fantasized here, a justice that even today is rarely achieved. This adaptation juggles this deftly to make it all come together in a way that justifies the joy and redemption the story needs.

While I enjoy almost every production I have seen of this, this remains the gold standard for me, the perfect telling of a story full of love, of humour, humility, and hope.

Much Ado About Nothing
Starring: Emma Thompson, Kenneth Branagh, Denzel Washington, Keanu Reeves, Kate Beckinsale, Michael Keaton, Robert Sean Leonard, Imelda Staunton, Richard Briers
Director: Kenneth Branagh
Writers: William Shakespeare, Kenneth Branagh