"As You Like It" starts with a palace coup resulting in the Duke(Brian Blessed) being deposed by his own brother(Blessed again), along with nearly all of his family. The new duke keeps his niece, Rosalind(Bryce Dallas Howard), around to keep his daughter, Celia(Romola Garai), company. To keep themselves busy, the
cousins watch a wrestling match where Rosalind and the victorious wrestler, Orlando(David Oyelowo), develop a mutual infatuation. But Rosalind soon becomes too popular for her own good and is exiled, too. Celia decides to leave with her cousin since they cannot easily be parted, bringing the fool(Alfred Molina) along for laughs...Based on the William Shakespeare play, "As You Like It" proves the old adage that any movie with Brian Blessed in dual roles cannot be entirely bad. In fact, there is a most formidable cast that also includes Janet McTeer, Kevin Kline and Adrian Lester. But director Kenneth Branagh does not exploit the unique setting of tariff ports in 19th century Japan(actually every other possible setting for Shakespeare has already been used) to its full advantage.(Hopefully, he was not just inspired by the early wrestling scene...) Still, this is a gorgeously photographed and entertaining movie about love trumping material possessions every time. But love can be a possession like every other object. And remember that falling in love is the easy part.
May 11, 2008
