Review by John Delia
Taking a Shakespearean tragic comedy, Much Ado About Nothing, and making it into a black and white motion picture centering on modern day Los Angeles, Joss Whedon targets a small market. Keeping with the Bard’s tongue rather than using American English, Whedon takes a big chance on his audience staying long enough to adjust and giving him a pass. Although I like the film just the way he made it, he’ll miss the money market that’s beyond the Art House crowd.
The movie gets going very quickly with Don Pedro (Reed Diamond) visiting Leonato (Clark Gregg) the Governor of Massina at his lavish estate overlooking a golf course in Los Angeles. Accompanying Don Pedro is his brother Don John who has been taken into custody by two police officers Benedick (Alexis Denisof) and Claudio (Fran Kranz).
During their visit its love at first sight when Claudio falls for Leonato’s daughter Hero (Jillian Morgese) and proposes marriage. She accepts and a wedding is planned with her cousin Beatrice (Amy Acker) being the maid of honor. The comedy of errors follows with Beatrice being tricked into falling for Benedict and vise versa.  All seems like heaven until trickery and jealousy gets stirred into the mix starting a chaotic situation comedy.
The Shakespearean language does take some time to get used to and in fact it took me at least one quarter of the way thorough the film. But not to worry as the incredible acting with all the facial expressions help you to understand what’s happening in each frame of the film. The small intro above does help however, as the characters are set for you and the main theme laid out. If you want to know the whole story before going to see the film, then I suggest you read Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare.
The direction by Joss Whedon who gave us The Avengers no less, has a strong, dark and yet winsome feel as his actors move in and out of the scenes. He uses Maids to assist in the cunning traps and creative lechery that pits the players first on common ground than against each other in a challenge of adversity and reprisal. Whedon filmed the updated play in just 12 days in his mansion home in the Los Angeles area. Using black and white to keep the feel of oldness, he creates an atmosphere inviting to most theater goers and those that like silent films.
Much Ado About Nothing has been rated PG-13 by the MPAA for some sexuality and brief drug use.
FINAL ANALYSIS:Â An interesting take on a Shakespeare classic. (B)
Additional Film Information:
- Cast: Alexis Denisof, Fran Kranz, Amy Acker, Jillian Morgese, Reed Diamond, Clark Gregg
- Directed by: Joss Whedon
- Genre: Shakespeare, Tragic Comedy
- MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some sexuality and brief drug use
- Running Time: 1 hr 57 min
- Opening Date: June 21, 2013
- Distributed by: Lionsgate