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Love's Labour's Lost (2000)

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All Critics
Top Critics

Average Rating: 5.6/10
Reviews Counted: 62
Fresh: 30 | Rotten: 32

Interesting idea, poor execution.

Average Rating: 4.7/10
Critic Reviews: 17
Fresh: 6 | Rotten: 11

Interesting idea, poor execution.

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Average Rating: 3.1/5
User Ratings: 3,521

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Movie Info

Actor/director Kenneth Branagh sets his screen version of Shakespeare's play in the 1930s, adding such classic songs as "They Can't Take That Away From Me," "The Way You Look Tonight," and "Let's Face the Music and Dance," and staging it in the manner of a Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers musical. The King of Navarre (Allesandro Nivola) and three of his noblemen (Branagh, Matthew Lillard, and Adrien Lester) have decided that they're wasting their time chasing women. They swear a solemn oath to spend

PG, 1 hr. 33 min.

Drama, Romance, Musical & Performing Arts, Comedy

Directed By: Kenneth Branagh

Written By: Kenneth Branagh

In Theaters: Jun 9, 2000 Wide

On DVD: Dec 19, 2000

Miramax Films

Cast

Alessandro Nivola
The King of Navarre
Alicia Silverstone
Princess of France
Natascha McElhone
Rosaline
Kenneth Branagh
Berowne
Carmen Ejogo
Maria
Matthew Lillard
Longaville
Adrian Lester
Dumaine
Emily Mortimer
Katherine
Richard Briers
Nathaniel
Geraldine McEwan
Holofernia
Stefania Rocca
Jaquenetta
Jimmy Yuill
Dull
Nathan Lane
Costard
Timothy Spall
Don Armado
Anthony O'Donnell
Moth
Richard Clifford
Boyet

Critic Reviews for Love's Labour's Lost

All Critics (67) | Top Critics (18) | Fresh (31) | Rotten (32) | DVD (7)

A luscious labor of love.

July 6, 2008 Full Review Source: Variety

| Comment

Derek Elley

Variety

Top Critic

Maybe Kenneth Branagh should have left the Hollywood musical where he found it, back in the 1930s.

February 21, 2004 Full Review Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution

| Comment

David Germain

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Top Critic

A double travesty -- a triple one, actually, if you consider the quality of the singing and dancing.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Village Voice

| Comment

J. Hoberman

Village Voice

Top Critic

The froth quickly curdles.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: New York Magazine

| Comment

Peter Rainer

New York Magazine

Top Critic

Each player ends up performing in a different play.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Entertainment Weekly

| Comment

Lisa Schwarzbaum

Entertainment Weekly

Top Critic

Love's Labour's Lost is a stink bomb of a movie.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle

| Comment

Mick LaSalle

San Francisco Chronicle

Top Critic

A noble experiment that didn't quite work out.

January 1, 2011 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media

| Comment

Ellen MacKay

Common Sense Media

We all know who's going to pair off with whom in the end, but Branagh does get us there in some considerable style.

July 6, 2008 Full Review Source: Film4

| Comment

Film4

If you suspend disbelief and just go with the weirded out flow of things, it's a bit like, well, Shakespeare on acid.

August 28, 2007 Comment

Prairie Miller

filmgazette.com

An act of double homage to antique artifice.

February 9, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out

| Comment

Geoff Andrew

Time Out

Alicia Silverstone was better as Batgirl than in this piece of garbage. I don't think she even understood what she was saying.

December 6, 2005 Full Review Source: Film Threat

| Comment

Chris Gore

Film Threat

Branagh takes one of Shakespeare's lesser-known plays and puts his own imaginative spin on the subject.

April 9, 2005 Full Review Source: Reeling Reviews

| Comment

Robin Clifford

Reeling Reviews

Devices meant to keep Shakespeare user-friendly instead reduce the story to a jumble.

June 6, 2003 Full Review | Comment

Jeffrey Westhoff

Northwest Herald (Crystal Lake, IL)

Casting Silverstone as the princess gives final proof of Branagh's temporary (one hopes) insanity.

May 14, 2003 Comment

Joe Mader

Palo Alto Weekly

Love's Labour's Lost wasn't lost on me at all; if I could float into the air, singing 'Cheek to Cheek' with total, unabashed sincerity, I probably would.

January 10, 2003 Full Review Source: Nick's Flick Picks

| Comment

Nick Davis

Nick's Flick Picks

It's a delightful blend of past styles and songs that adds a much-needed zest to a dry and dreary movie season.

November 22, 2002 Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid

| Comment

Jeffrey M. Anderson

Combustible Celluloid

It's never hugely engaging and it's instantly forgettable, but it has a certain goofy charm...

April 3, 2002 Full Review Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer

| Comment

William Arnold

Seattle Post-Intelligencer

A delightful romantic comedy with musical numbers by Cole Porter, Irving Berlin and George Gershwin.

March 13, 2002 Full Review Source: Spirituality and Practice

| Comment

Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat

Spirituality and Practice

More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Love's Labour's Lost

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One of the kind of films that you wished you could love more than you actually do. Because they don't really do anything wrong. They take Shakespeare's play and put it into the 1930s musical era, with all the singing, dancing and water ballet that comes with it. The songs are more or less familiar, some performances

June 15, 2009

Jens S.

Super Reviewer

Okay, so this Branagh go at Shakespeare may leave out a lot of the Bard's words, but the spirit is definitely there. Strictly speaking, in the classic sense, comedy does not necessarily equal ha-ha funny. To put it in truly simplistic terms, comedy has only to follow a certain path. With tragedy in the classic

November 26, 2008