"Much Ado About Nothing" review (not mine)

POSTED BY: Wishimay
UPDATED: Monday, July 8, 2013 16:03
VIEWED: 6871
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FIREFLYPASSENGER

Saturday, June 15, 2013 10:37 PM

I wrote a list of superlatives for the movie:

#MuchAdoAboutNothing
Spectacular, Delightful, Fabulous, Wonderful,
Captivating, Marvelous, Enchanting, Beautiful,
Fun, Magnificent.

It's my favorite play, my favorite Director and my favorite Actors.

I love the Kenneth Branagh version and kept comparing it to that. I think I love that one because I am most familiar with it but I always disliked Denzel Washington and Keanu Reeves and the actor who portrays Leonato never impressed me. I love Kenneth Branagh, Emma Thompson and Robert Sean Leonard.

Joss' version is truly beautiful. His house is majestic so just looking at everything and thinking this is where he lives, was a part of it. The black and white and modern setting works. The music is an original score by Joss Whedon and it is performed by Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen.

Benedict Alexis Denisof vs. Kenneth Tie- It's like apples and oranges. Each had their strengths one is not better than the other.

Beatrice Amy Acker vs. Emma Thompson Tie- I saw a lot of Emma's Beatrice in Amy's and at one point she may have given a little extra oomph to her performance.

Leonato Clark Gregg is the clear winner for me he adds so much life and joy to this character. Clark is charming and extrememly talented.

Claudio Fran Kranz vs. Robert Sean Leonard Fran is just better. He is a joy to watch. Comparing his roles from Cabin in the Woods, Dollhouse and now Much Ado About Nothing the man deserves to be a star! I wish him all the success. He could someday get an Oscar if he got lucky.

Don Pedro Reed Diamond vs. Denzel Washington Reed is simply delightful, a joy to watch. He usually plays not so nice, mean, smarmy guys. Here is the performance of Don Pedro I was looking for from Denzel. I feel Denzel was flat and Reed just flies with grace and beauty. He is very handsome and talented.

Hero Jillian Morgese vs. Kate Beckinsale Tie with maybe Jillian could win upon further viewing of both. Both actress are unknowns and this is there first roles. Jillian was an extra on the Avengers and got lucky with Joss. I think she did a good job. I like her more than Kate.

Don John Sean Maher vs. Keanu Reeves Sean was wonderful as a villain. I enjoyed his performance. I never liked Keanu's performance. Sean was great.

Dogberry Nathan Fillion vs Michael Keaton Michael Keaton I still love Michael Keaton's Dogberry more so than Nathan's. Nathan was hilarious but I think he was more Nathan being funny than being Dogberry. I know Nathan was hesistant to do Shakespeare but he did a great job. Tom Lenk was his partner and he was very good and quite funny.

I have wanted to see Joss' version since he made it in 2011. So I was planning on a midnight screening when I heard they were available. It was sold out, thank God, I had to start work at 6:30am. However Arclight Hollywood added a 10pm SNEAK showing so I bought a ticket to that. I didn't have anyone to go with on a Thursday night so I went by myself. I was ecstatic, truly joyfilled and shedding tears of joy. Joss' work never disappoints me. He is amazing to me and he always meets or exceeds expectations.

Friday I scored a ticket to see it including a Q&A. Moderated by Adam B. Vary from Buzzfeed, Tom Lenk, Clark Gregg, Amy
Adams (Amy Acker, Adam messed up) Joss Whedon and Alexis Denisof. Adam was teased A LOT for THAT mistake.

Alexis Denisof said that he thought Joss enjoyed not having to do rewrites since it was Shakespeare.
Tom Lenk said he enjoyed the fact he didn't need to check the script to see if he was going to die.
Clark Gregg said he knows how that feels.
AmyAcker tells him we all know how that feels. Then we all go oooooo and Joss suddenly looks at Alexis and says I see dead people.

It was hilarious.

Clark talks about being the newest member of the Whedonverse and he talks about Amy Adams and how he thought he would be working with he and she was new. Then Joss clarifies that she has been a member of the Whedonverse from way back. Amy Ad

GEEZER

Wednesday, June 26, 2013 1:59 PM

Madame and I went to see this yesterday, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Good to see some Whedon alumni together and having fun. Joss's use of his house and yard as the entire set was inspired(and made me want his house). Since the dialog is pretty well set, Joss had to make the movie his own visually, and did a fine job, I think, making the movie fun and interesting to watch, an more lively than other interpretations of Much Ado I've seen. Enjoyed it more than the Branaugh version.

If you can find it in your area, I'd recommend it.

ETA: A couple of ladies sitting in front of us were apparently Shakespeare fans rather than Joss fans. During the credits, one said, "Look, Joss wrote the music too. I knew SHE directed it, but didn't know SHE was a musician."

"When your heart breaks, you choose what to fill the cracks with. Love or hate. But hate won't ever heal. Only love can do that."

VERSEEXPLORER

Friday, June 28, 2013 10:28 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by FIREFLYPASSENGER:
Claudio Fran Kranz vs. Robert Sean Leonard Fran is just better. He is a joy to watch. Comparing his roles from Cabin in the Woods, Dollhouse and now Much Ado About Nothing the man deserves to be a star! I wish him all the success. He could someday get an Oscar if he got lucky.

Fireflypassenger,
I totally agree with your post. I've seen it twice already. I think that Fran Kranz is GREAT in everything. I hope he gets the recognition that he deserves.

WISHIMAY

Tuesday, July 2, 2013 3:09 AM

Found on youtube

NEWOLDBROWNCOAT

Monday, July 8, 2013 4:03 PM

caught it over the weekend. Good but not great. Worth the price of the tickets.

Joss did a good job of handling the language and the plot: none of that phoney speechifying that some actors get dealing with Shakespeare, very natural sounding. And he did a good job on the Claudio/Hero plot, which has a lot of darkness for a comedy. He got a good performance out of Amy Acker, better than everybody else, and out of Sean Maher- Don John describes himself as a "plain dealing villian", an invitation to a traditional stereotype if there ever was one. Sean makes him human and pretty reasonable. Joss also got some lovely photography out of the black and white, again Amy Acker in particular, and the closing shot is beautifully romantic-- guys, take your wife or gf, she'll leave the theater in a good mood.

What was missing was the joy or pleasure and the comedy. These folks are reunited after winning a war, all except Don John, and coming home. But nobody seemed to be happy about that. There are jokes all through, but none got any reaction from the audience I was in. Dogberry didn't even get any laughs until his second scene, the examination. Nathan saying, "I am an ass," is not all of the humor of Dogberry.

I think that is a function of the rush to get it shot in 12 days. Joss got the plot, the action, in the can, TV style, and clearly. That's a good thing-- don't get me wrong on that. It CAN take that long just to find a hammer, as WISH says above. More time for more thought and analysis would have been needed to play up the jokes, find the funny business, hit 'em over the head a little harder.

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