Nothing Done Right

According to writer-director Joss Whedon, back in the days when his series Buffy the Vampire Slayer was on the air, he would have periodic gatherings at his house where he and the cast of his shows would read Shakespearean plays in a casual setting. This, combined with a desire to do something decidedly less intensive following The Avengers, was the inspiration for his newest film, an adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing that sets the play in modern times.

Among the Shakespeare I've read or seen, Much Ado About Nothing ranks somewhere in the middle for me. It never struck me as quite the all-out comedy it was supposed to be, and many of its conventions about love are much more dated than the topics in Shakespeare's more respected tragedies. There were things I liked about the Kenneth Branagh adaptation, but only enough for me to find it good and not great. This new adaptation, I enjoyed much more.

Filmed in black and white at Joss Whedon's own home over a tight schedule of just a few weeks, Much Ado About Nothing may offer a taste of those old, impromptu cast readings, in that it's filled top to bottom with Whedon "alumni." Amy Acker and Alexis Denisof (both from Angel) play Beatrice and Benedick, the two obstinate lovers at the heart of the play. Acker is strong willed incredibly nimble with the language, while Denisof portrays his character as just enough of a blowhard to be humorous while staying sympathetic. Both are excellent with physical comedy injected into the proceedings through Whedon's adaptation.

Whedon's series Dollhouse is represented by Reed Diamond as Don Pedro and Fran Kranz (who also appeared in The Cabin in the Woods) as Claudio. Diamond has a great deal of fun with the princely excesses of his character. Kranz deftly manages a lot of emotional heavy lifting required of his character, who in turns must be smitten with love, consumed by jealousy, filled with rage, and overwhelmed by grief. It's a schizophrenic role on the page, but he brings it credibility.

Firefly is represented well by Sean Maher and Nathan Fillion. Maher is the villainous Don John. In Whedon's adaptation, one of Don John's two henchman is switched to a woman, and the two are a wicked couple together. I think the reasons for Don John's villainy are still rather unclear (blame Shakespeare for that), but Maher performs the role with skillful relish. Meanwhile, Nathan Fillion plays the role of the fool, a pompous policeman named Dogberry. He doesn't have a great deal of screen time, but squeezes every last drop of comedic juice out of each of his lines. He's riotously funny, and the adaptation sets him up wonderfully with Tom Lenk (of Buffy the Vampire Slayer) as a duo that's part C.S.I., part Keystone Kops.

But possibly the real scene stealer of the piece is Clark Gregg, new to the Whedon fold from his role as Agent Coulson in the Marvel films (a role he's soon to reprise on the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. television series). He was apparently a last minute replacement of Buffy alumni Anthony Stewart Head, and he stepped into a part that, on the page, makes absolutely no sense at all -- a father who wishes his daughter eternal happiness one moment and wishes her dead the next. Gregg commits with gusto to every turn the script demands of him, and while I still don't see the logic in the play that explains the behavior, you can tell that the actor figured out a mindset to make it work.

The result is a real triumph for Shakespeare on film. Some would call it sacrilege to place someone else above Kenneth Branagh, and others would say I have a blind spot where Joss Whedon is concerned, but I truly do think this film superior to Branagh's adaptation in every way. I give it an A-, and my enthusiastic recommendation.