Hardly a calculated stunt, Joss Whedon’s home-movie take on Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing wisely casts a sparkling Amy Acker as Beatrice. Whedon’s ensemble cast, familiar to fans of his TV work (Angel, Firefly, Buffy Te Vampire Slayer) rollick their way to a giddy yet formidable modern-dress re-imagining of the bard’s comedy. Long on commentary regarding the battle of the sexes, the play’s durability is on display in vivid black-and-white (the seond quality film in b & w this month, following Frances Ha).
Whedon adds on a good dash of slapstick, mostly effective, and a present day L. A. setting, albeit one where the men incongruously wear conservative suits. The shifting allegiances, double crosses, misadventures and general shrewd mayhem come across light and fluffy but wholly charming. The film’s tone is consistent with Whedon’s actors’ countervailing nerdiness, presumably an antidote to the dustiness some present-day audiences might wrongly come to expect from a filmed Shakespeare. (For a fine straight version of the play, see Kenneth Branagh’s 1993 version.)
If it all seems a little too pleasant, that’s precisely the point. Despite the requisite happy endings, these Elizabethan comedies were anything but soulless. In stark relief to the funny stuff, Much Ado About Nothing’s depiction of the humiliation of Hero at her wedding altar reaches a pinnacle of important feminist issues regarding women’s subservient role in society. Her own father, Leonato (Clark Gregg) at first takes the side of bumbling, duped Claudio (Franz Kranz) for no apparent reason other than he’s a man. Beatrice provides the perfect “Oh, God, that I were a man” soliliquy as a further exploration of the topic.
As Benedick, Alexis Denisof takes some getting used to. Overshadowed by Acker, he plays the role cute and pronounced, somewhat exaggerated. Saving the day is Whedon regular Nathan Fillion, dead-pan hilarious as Constable Dogberry. Whedon shot the film in his own house on a paper-thin budget in 12 days while on a break from working on The Avengers. All in all, a hearfelt good time.
3 1/2 Love Gods (out of 5)