Love's Labour's Lost
|
Our Price: $37.74 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $11.56 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Canada
Movie Reviews of Love's Labour's Lost
Movie Review: Love's Labor Lost
Summary: 5 Stars
Love's Labor Lost is a wonderful cinematic creation. Branagh captures the heart of Shakespeare, but does so in a 30s musical setting. Like any Branagh movie, the setting is visually inviting and holds the attention of the audience.Movie Review: Why not?
Summary: 4 Stars
I'm being generous with four stars, but Amazon won't let you rate with halves and I couldn't bear to give this delightful little bit of fluff three or less.Let's take the elements here: 1)Shakespeare - YAY! Love 'im, he's great, and I don't much care how much is taken away in terms of volume of lines as long as the actors can put the necessary omph behind them. 2) 30s hits - HOOO BABY, yay! Cole Porter, Gerswhin, delightful music. Can't really go wrong. 3) Kenneth Branagh -- good. He likes to go over the top, push the envelope, whatever cliche you want to use to say that he is a daring filmmaker, and that sort of daring is necessary both for musicals and for Shaekspeare productions. Sure, he oversteps every now and then, but it doesn't detract from all that he gets right. Stupid things like having the Don kick his lackey in the crotch are easily overlooked in light of the hilarious fun Branagh ocassionaly has with adapting a modern setting to the original text.
Do you actually need to know the plot? Nope, not really, it's doesn't matter much. The film is a vehicle to get four attractive men paired up with four attractive women and have a lot of rollicking good times, singing and dancing in between. In short, though, the king of Nevarre and his three chums have agreed to devote themselves to study for the next three years, forgoing food, drink, sleep, and women. Then -whoops!- four women, headed by the princess of France, drop into town. Shakespeare's comedies actually are comparable to musicals -- there's a lot of beautiful verse, people fall in love at first sight, and reality is chucked right out the window, thank you very much.
One of my favorite bits was when the four goofy lovers all come into the library one by one to confess their love, seemingly to no one, and each man is overheard and found out. Dumaine is called out by Longaville, and the King jumps out of his hiding place to chastise them both. In the original text, Nevarre is hidden in a bush, but in the movie he hides in plain view, holding a potted plant in front of his face. His line, "I was shrouded in this bush," while holding aloft the little plant makes me laugh like the idiot I am.
I didn't really mind that the actors aren't phenomenal talents; they're clearly having fun. Alessandro Nivola as the King was a surprise for me; I'm generally dubious about most American's abilities with Shakespeare, but he was very capable and easily understood (that's really the mark of whether or not a person is good at Shakespeare. If you, without reading the text, can follow what a character is saying, then they're doing it right). He has a solid singing voice and is just plain fun to watch. Branagh is a good singer, a fair dancer, and his Shakespeare will always be phenomenal. Adrian Lester is FAN-damn-TASTIC, and Matthew Lillard kind of sucks, but he fortunately has a very small part. The four boys, in general, are extremely entertaining.
For the women; I can hardly abide Alicia Silverstone in this role. Her singing voice is very thin (the girls' "Fancy Free" just isn't that good. Silverstone's solo baffled me. I was like, "What are you trying to do? Be British? Sing? Cause you're not really doing either."), her dancing is probably the weakest of the women's, and her Shakespeare is wretched. She doesn't speak it like she gets it, more like she's trying to put emphasis on every single stupid word. The Princess, instead of being a wit, is just kind of annoying. Natasha McElhone is fantastic as Rosaline; she gives her character dignity where Silverstone's is a flighty teen. The other two girls are really interchangeable and neither have significant solos.
All in all, it was a very entertaining film. As a whole, it's a good time, even though it isn't first rate Shakespeare or musical. Whee!
Movie Review: I like a Gershwin tune, how about you?
Summary: 4 Stars
As to being a fan of Kenneth Branagh's interpretation of Shakespeare and the classic Hollywood musical, I confess both. This acknowledged preference leaves me predisposed to enjoy this film. And yet, on first viewing, I found myself vaguely dissatisfied. I wasn't "bowled over" the same way I was by "Much Ado About Nothing" and "Hamlet." I missed all of those great location shots and sweeping vistas. Where were the castles? Where was the sense of importance?
Thankfully, I gave the film a second viewing and I came to realize that "Love's Labor's Lost" is not only Shakespeare filmed as a 1940's Hollywood musical, but it is filmed in the style of a 1940's Hollywood musical. All action takes place on a sound stage, and all the colors are primary. It's not meant to look real the way "Henry V" looks real. At this realization, I settled back and thoroughly enjoyed the film. I liked it even better on the third viewing when I pulled out my book and followed along with the play. The tunes do an amazing job of capturing the missing dialog and forwarding the play.
This film has an amazing collection of tunes, with George Gershwin, Cole Porter, and Irving Berlin posthumously collaborating, each contributing their finest work. While there is not a Gene Kelly among them, all of the actors are surprisingly capable triple threats. Alessandro Nivola has a very nice voice, and Adrian Lester shows them all what dancing is during "I've Got a Crush on You." Nathan Lane is great, of course, and Timothy Spall plays a very funny Don Armado (who gets to sing "I Get a Kick Out of You"). Natascha McElhone is a stand out among the ladies, and Alicia Silverstone is surprisingly no Keanu Reeves.
The ending of this film is the real prize. The cast sighs their way through "They Can't Take That Away from Me" looking as "Casablanca" as they can get. For a Shakespeare comedy, it is quite a melancholy ending. You this way, we that way.
Finally, as the successful mark of a musical, I have been humming these tunes for weeks. "Take a lesson from me, I'd rather Charleston..."
Movie Review: It's fancy free and free for anything fancy
Summary: 4 Stars
Folks, please, PLEASE don't compare Love's Labour's Lost to Branagh's Hamlet or Henry V. It's not a tragedy, it's not the Battle of Agincourt. It's a Shakespearian comedy. Shakespeare's comedies were light, flitty, and nothing like his tragedies.That being said, the transfer of one of his lesser-known comedies (when you compare it to something like Taming of the Shrew or Twelfth Night) is most fitting considering Love's Labour's Lost has all the elements of a screwball musical comedy of the late 30s, early 40s. Nathan Lane's comedic candor is a welcome touch, and is sure to make you laugh. Branagh, as previously demonstrated in Much Ado About Nothing, plays comic roles as well as he does tragic. I was pleasantly surprised by the talents of Matthew Lillard, and let me say those boys CAN dance (check out the "I've Got a Crush On You" scene).
With numbers like the toe-tapping "There's No Business Like Show Business," hot, steamy "Let's Face the Music and Dance," and the over-the-top "I Get a Kick Out of You," Branagh's fusion between the Golden Age of musical theatre and the Bard is near-perfect, something I haven't seen since Kiss Me, Kate.
My one complaint, the bane of the film if you will, is Alicia Silverstone. She plays the Princess of France with the same personality she gave to her character in Clueless, and there is only so much of that voice of hers that I can take. True, visually, she fits into the film, but the moment she opens that mouth, watch out!
However, it is, all-in-all, an excellent film that evokes the romance of the pre-WWII era and the delightful wit of the Bard.
Movie Review: A sweet and charming adaptation even with it's flaws
Summary: 4 Stars
As much as I like "uncut" Shakespeare, I found this film a fun little gem. The meshing of 1930's music, black and white "newsreels," and the variety of talents made for an enjoyable viewing.
I really liked the entire look of the film, from the "all the credits at the beginning" (just like films done before the 1970's) to the use of specific colors to for each character's costumes to changing Holofernes to Holofernia (it makes the utterances of the vicar about "society" mean a lot more than I thought it did when I read the play in high school).
Some reviewers complain about the presence and "lack of ability" of the 2 Americans in the cast. I didn't think that they did a bad job at all. Also, the fact that most of the performers are mainly actors rather than singers and dancers didn't bother me either. I prefer a good actor delivering the lines and emotions properly and dancing "amatuerly" than having it the other way around.
My overall favorite sequence is the "farewell" scene where each pair of lovers arrange to meet a year and a day hence and they sing "They Can't Take That Away From Me" followed by a "newsreel" of what happens to them all during that "year and a day" and the reunion at the end of the film.
Additionally, my niece watched it with me and she is now reading Shakespeare's comedies, watching other films and reading about the history of the first half of the 20th century. I can't call the film a failure when it has that effect on someone.