The Worst Film Ever

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

I think this was an enjoyable film that you should watch if you enjoy Shakespeare and his work. The director included a range of quotes from the play and the characters showed their personalities and emotion which really added to the drama. It had me hooked from beginning to end and having already read Much Ado About Nothing it was very interesting to see how much a difference it was when see the words shown through actors. My favourite parts were when the characters were having conversation using Shakespearean language but with the knowledge of English and the characters facial expressions you could still understand and be memorized by it. I am happy with film and the only negative thing I have to say about it is the tendency for the characters to go over the top with there expressions especially when Claudio was looking trying to give the look of sadness and heartbreak because it came across more like he was having indigestion. Apart from this the actors were great and excelled their roles perfectly.

It's been decades since I've read any Shakespeare, so I don't know how closely this BBC production follows the bard's original. I suspect it's very close, if not exact. This film rendition of "Much Ado About Nothing" is by far the best. All the technical aspects are excellent, and the acting and direction are superb. Kenneth Branagh scores a triple hit with his adaptation, direction, and acting (in the part of Benedick). Most of the performers excel. The incomparable Emma Thompson shines as Beatrice, opposite Benedick. Richard Briers is wonderful as Leonato. Denzel Washington does a very good job as the initially magnanimous Don Pedro, then the quiet accuser and withdrawn observer. Robert Leonard plays the part of Claudio near perfectly, opposite Kate Beckinsale's Hero. And, Keanu Reeves is at once disliked for his stark portrayal of the pouting, hateful and envious Don John. All the rest of the cast give top performances. Even then, one smaller but meaty part stands out above all these other wonderful roles. That is Michael Keaton as the chief constable, Dogberry. Keaton steals every scene in which he appears. He gives marvelous life to his hilarious character. I laugh every time I see him in a scene, and even when I think about him at other times – as now. I would love to see Keaton in more Shakespeare comedy. Some people may shy away from Shakespeare because they find the language difficult. I highly recommend this production of "Much Ado About Nothing." It's an ideal film to introduce people to Shakespeare. And, I'm sure most will find it easy to follow. This film not only is my favorite rendition of this play, but it's my favorite film of any Shakespearean work.

The play is probably the first "romantic comedy"/date movie, as we understand it today, with all the necessary plot points:-boy meets girl; -boy falls in love with girl; -girl falls in love with boy; -momentary happiness; -something bad happens, either by misunderstanding or deliberate misconduct from someone; -redemption, clarification of what went wrong, with a public manifestation of love on all parts. happy end.This is what you find in pretty much any common date movie. But of course here we have Shakespeare, so the language is better and the narrative devices are all better pulled off, and the whole structure makes sense:-masked parties where no one knows to whom they are speaking, where messages can, because of that, be misunderstood;-dialogues intended to be overheard by someone who doesn't know he is being framed-momentary breaking of happiness through deceit (John the Bastard) by showing a sex scene which is not exactly what it looks like;-the undoing of all the mistakes comes through a "masked" wedding, again with a bride who is not who she was told to be, after the lie came out that she was actually dead.-"…about nothing". Nothing sounded like Noting in Shakespeare's days, and "noting" meant something like gossip in modern English. the title is not exactly what it sounds…Happiness comes to everybody when the misunderstandings are undone, the mischiefs found out, the liars punished. The story of the characters evolves parallel to the inner structures of the play. that's the beauty of it.But this is a play, theatre, which means we, viewers, can't be deceived the way the characters are. Only cinema would give writers that chance and nowadays it is pretty standard that sometimes we see stuff that later we will find out to be wrong. What a screenwriter Shakespeare would have been…What i love here is the energy between Branagh and Thompson, the 2 real actors in the film. I think this film is more about the celebration of their relation that it is about translating Shakespeare to cinema language. So Kenneth chose the closest Shakespeare (probably) ever got to screen-writing, and placed himself and Emma at the passionate center of this world.Branagh directs, this passion gets also behind the camera, no one is more sweetly photographed as Thompson. And he is a marvelous theatre actor, excessive but believable, articulate but fluid, choreographed but still passionate. This film is a celebration itself, a party of sorts. I enjoy it as such.

Not my favorite Shakespeare play, lacking the rich, playful complexities of some of the Bard's other comedies, I've always felt on a pure plot level this feels more simplistic, ill-logical and forced than most of the works by the greatest writer in the English language.That said, Branagh's adaptation has some sensational elements. The best of all is the relationship between Branagh and Emma Thompson (then married in real life) as Benedick and Beatrice. As they showed in their brief time together in Branagh's "Henry V" the two are both magnificent at making Shakespeare feel human, spontaneous, modern and above all fun. Both create terrific characters – two bull headed intellectual wits who obviously belong together, but who managing to use their words and wit to keep tripping themselves up, like some Shakespearian version of the best of Tracy and Hepburn. The star studded cast all do good work, although the much lesser known Richard Biers is perhaps the most wonderful in his simple, warm human reality as Leonato. The film looks great, filmed on an estate in Tuscany with beautiful grounds and that Tuscan light forming a backdrop too our story. But, in the end, the play's the thing, and much of the other character's stories. well acted as they are, feel too melodramatic and heavy handed for the fun, light feel of the film (Robert Sean Leonard and Kate Beckensale both do excellent work as Claudio and Hero, but their storyline's over-dramatic swings are hard to overcome). The score also feels over-the-top, especially in the more dramatic sections, which in turn adds to the feeling that there's something too uneven in the tone. The comedy (e.g. Michael Keaton's very weird but entertaining Dogberry), is so broad, that it's hard to put it in the same film with the over- sober tone of the story of the young lovers. None-the-less there's a lot to like if one overlooks some unevenness in both story and presentation.