And I am home. The new film of MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING is quite delightful; I'm not sure that it all works, given some of the artificiality of Shakespeare's plotting, but when it's cooking, it's sheer delight. There are bits where I thought, hmm . . . La Dolce Vita or The Sopranos, Dogberry's watch transformed well to a neighborhood security unit, and Leonato's estate nicely became a Hollywood estate.
In some ways, the play is set better in a past time period; Claudio's jealousy and potential spouse abuse as well as the humiliation of Hero are too un-PC and ugly for a contemporary romantic comedy. I think the Joseph Papp production with Sam Waterston set in 1912 works better there, and April Shawhan's devastation as the wronged Hero moves me more than the situation here. I thought that Whedon let the melancholy moment of Don Pedro's proposal to Beatrice go by too quickly, but perhaps Whedon and reed Diamond didn't believe that Don Pedro was serious. I do.
Still, there was much to like and much of it is funny and speedily played like a good screwball comedy. I liked the hip Hollywood cast, particularly Clark Gregg as Leonato and Nathan Fillion as the nincompoop Dogberry. I liked Amy Acker and Alexis Denisof, two actors I would swear I've never seen before, quite a lot as Beatrice and Benedick, and I think the film's a good transformation of one of my favorite Shakespeare plays.
