3.5 stars. Rating: PG-13, for sensuality, subtle sexual candor and fleeting drug use
By Derrick Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 6.21.13
Fred and Wesley finally got back
together, which is pretty cool.
And while the circumstances are
rather unusual, they’re no less delightful.
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| An eavesdropping Beatrice (Amy Acker, foreground) is astonished to overhear details about how Benedick — elsewhere in the estate — has long adored her ... astonished because it seems that she and Benedick do nothing but snipe at each other. Ah, but Beatrice doesn't realize that Hero (Jillian Morgese, center) and the maid are fully aware that they're being overheard, and are discussing "details" that have been exaggerated for Beatrice's benefit. |
Most filmmakers, after completing
principal photography on a massive, gazillion-dollar project, unwind prior to
the next step — assembling the director’s cut — by taking calm vacations ... anything but film-related.
Joss Whedon isn’t most people.
Prior to putting the finishing touches on The Avengers — last year’s wildly
successful superhero summit meeting — he filled the in-between time by staging
an intimate, micro-budget movie at his own Los Angeles home. And, as genre
geeks know, when Whedon mounts such a project, he always engages the close
friends who’ve become one of Hollywood’s most loyal repertoire companies.
In this case, a 12-day shoot (!)
yielded one of the most unusual interpretations of Shakespeare’s Much Ado
About Nothing ever to hit cinema screens. Lensed in glorious, mood-enhancing
black-and-white by cinematographer Jay Hunter, this modern-dress staging
nonetheless employs the Bard’s original dialogue — condensed and occasionally
tweaked by Whedon — and features faces well-recognized from his various
television projects.
Yes, kids; that means Buffy the
Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly and Dollhouse.
Thus, my somewhat cryptic opening
sentence can be explained by the casting of Alexis Denisof and Amy Acker —
Wesley Wyndam-Price and Winifred “Fred” Burke, respectively, on Angel — as
Benedick and Beatrice.
Lest you roll eyebrows over the
reflexive accusation that Whedon has unleashed a self-indulgent vanity
production, well, yes, that’s certainly true. But who can complain, when the
results are this entertaining?
To be sure, the initial
disconnect is jarring. The setting, clothing and technology clearly are 21st
century, which is at odds with the flowery Shakespearean dialogue. The acting style
throughout is a bit ostentatious and overly mannered, the performers
occasionally mugging for the camera the way a stage actor would pause for a
laugh from the audience.
But that “settling in” period can
be true of any Shakespeare production, even those that are rigorously
authentic. Fifteen or 20 minutes into this film, everything starts to look and
sound natural, at which point you’ll simply enjoy the richly contrived romantic
entanglements present in one of Shakespeare’s most appealing comedies.
