Love’s Labour’s Lost
2000: Kenneth Branagh

This is probably the fluffiest conceivable version of one of Shakespeare’s fluffiest plays. Running a mere hour and thirty-three minutes, much of it being taken by musical numbers (1930s chestnuts by George and Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, and Irving Berlin), more by miscellaneous fake newsreel clips about the court of Navarre in 1939, and still more occupied by various wordless cinematic set pieces, it’s high on concept, and short on Shakespeare.

With that proviso, it’s fun to watch. Most of the players are up to the task (reduced as it is), and many are quite excellent. Alicia Silverstone, alas, has to join Leonardo di Caprio and Keanu Reeves on my short list of actors who should probably forego Shakespeare in the future: her stilted diction evokes not so much someone playing a part as a schoolgirl reciting a few memorized lines of Shakespeare. The other three visiting ladies, and the four gentlemen of Navarre are splendid; Branagh is fun to watch as Berowne, the skeptic of the crew; Adrian Lester shows his superior acting and singing chops, and Natascha McElhone is bewitching as Rosaline. The other roles are covered at least adequately.

The film features some entertaining performances, excellent cinematography, occasionally dabbling with a Busby Berkeley aesthetic, and a lyrical score by Patrick Doyle. It’s hard not to enjoy it, though it’s definitely Love’s Labour’s Lite, and if one wants to find whatever this play has in it, probably a fuller version is called for.

Watch Love’s Labour’s Lost on streaming video from Amazon

Buy Love’s Labour’s Lost from Amazon.