MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (2012) *** AVOID ***
The modern retelling of the Shakespearean play. This is the second of the no budget projects Joss WHedon has been doing (second after Dr Horrible's Sing Along Blog, which is fantastic!) where he called up a bunch of actor friends (many of whom have worked with him before in Firefly, Angel or the Avengers) and filmed it in his house for a couple weeks. Sounds pretty cool, don't it? (It's good to be Joss!). Directed by Joss Whedon. Stars: Amy Acker, Alexis Denisof, Nathan Fillion, Clark Gregg, Reed Diamond, Fran Kranz, Sean Maher, and Jillian Morgese.
The story: Benedick had a one night stand with Beatrice, which went badly and now they hate each other. So, while another marriage is being arranged, everyone connives to get the two of them together. Also while that is happening there is a scheme to break up that marriage by making the groom think the girl has been unfaithful.
Was it good?
No. In many ways this play is the a great early example of almost all of our romantic comedy cliches. It has the couple that hates then falls in love, the misunderstanding that gets blown out of proportion, the evil scheme to break people up, the scheme to get people together. Really just all the cliches we are tired of. Which is the problem. Even if this is the first story to use those tropes (or some of them), is it still comes off as being all those same ridiculous cliches. At least TAMING OF THE SHREW dives into the gender wars a bit. This just flits along consumed with its own silliness. It would have been interested if Whedon had done a real reinvention, taking some of these cliches and turned them on their heads. But no. Nothing like that.
Beyond the faults of the source material, there isn't much great here. Amy Acker (Angel, Person of Interest) and Alexis Denisof (Angel, Buffy) are very good supporting tv actor, but they just don't commend your attention as romantic leads in a movie. The only actor who really seems to pull off his role is Nathan Fillion, who as a blustering detective steals his scenes and makes his scenes funnier than the scenes should be. Most of the other actors do well, but rarely elevate the material.
Oddly enough, this group is much more entertaining when you see them live. I saw them doing a panel at a comic convention and they -- the whole group, every one of them (except Fillion, he wasn't there) were funny and charming and wonderful. Maybe it was the Shakespearean mumble rocks they had to speak around or the contrived plot, but the movie just doesn't live up to what the director and cast showed they could do. So if you are a fan, try youtubing the panels they did -- they're better than the movie.
***AVOID***
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