Much Ado About Nothing (2013)
Average Rating: 7.5/10
Reviews Counted: 148
Fresh: 124 | Rotten: 24
Lighthearted to a fault, Much Ado About Nothing's giddy energy and intimate charm make for an entertaining romantic comedy -- and a Shakespearean adaptation that's hard to resist.
Average Rating: 7.9/10
Critic Reviews: 36
Fresh: 32 | Rotten: 4
Lighthearted to a fault, Much Ado About Nothing's giddy energy and intimate charm make for an entertaining romantic comedy -- and a Shakespearean adaptation that's hard to resist.
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Average Rating: 4.1/5
User Ratings: 18,298
Movie Info
Shakespeare's classic comedy is given a contemporary spin in Joss Whedon's film, "Much Ado About Nothing". Shot in just 12 days (and using the original text), the story of sparring lovers Beatrice and Benedick offers a dark, sexy and occasionally absurd view of the intricate game that is love. (c) Roadside Attractions
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Cast
-
Amy Acker
Beatrice -
Alexis Denisof
Benedick -
Clark Gregg
Leonato -
Reed Diamond
Don Pedro -
Fran Kranz
Claudio -
Jillian Morgese
Hero -
Nathan Fillion
Dogberry -
Sean Maher
Don John -
Spencer Treat Clark
Borachio -
Riki Lindhome
Conrade -
Tom Lenk
Verges -
Ashley Johnson
Margaret -
Emma Bates
Ursula -
Joshua Zar
Leonato's aide -
Nick Kocher
First Watchman -
Brian McElhaney
Second Watchman -
Paul Meston
Friar Francis -
Romy Rosemont
Sexton -
Elsa Guillet-Chapuis
The Photographer
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All Critics (148) | Top Critics (36) | Fresh (124) | Rotten (24)
Much Ado About Nothing is a delightfully spirited romp, filled with visual splendor, strong performances and flashes of post-modern absurdity.
Top CriticThe movie swings along, with a grace denied to some of Whedon's grander projects ...
The magic holds. It holds from beginning to end.
This fast and loose independent production is enjoyable as a home movie, but not much more.
A delightful mix of the modern and the Elizabethan, a sort of do-it-yourself re-imagination of a true comic classic.
There's no fire, and where their lines should ricochet with wit, they just spill forth, affably.
Has a wit and style you won't find in his kick-ass work for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly or The Avengers.
Framed in Whedon's lucid black and white it recalls the feisty romcoms of the Fifties, whilst scenes of subterfuge out on the streets at night employ the visual language of film noir.
The movie brings to life a high-toned summer dreamland ... that exists in a dimensional rift between the Renaissance, the era of My Man Godfrey and now.
The Elizabethan speech rarely totally flows, the modern setting jars and not all the actors convince. It's as slick as you'd expect, if not a little forgettable. A frothy passion project.
Super-charged with giddy enthusiasm, Whedon's ensemble brings Shakespeare to life in a riot of boozy passion and slapstick giggles.
Whedon's legendary talent for dense dialogue and wrangling sprawling casts of strong characters into engaging stories has never been put to better use.
A delightful celebration of Shakespeare's rapier wit...
It's a boozy, lusty, all-night party interpretation of Shakespeare that ultimately casts frivolity aside for a disarmingly moving finale.
A sublimely jolly presentation of a delightful play.
Though it's not terrible, neither is it terribly good.
Delivers ye old fashioned entertainment with a slick makeover
A self-contained, astutely executed project, with Whedon's old guard giving their all for the sheer joy of performance. Great fun.
The film's biggest problem is that its Beatrice, played with spunk and spark by Amy Acker, is far more engaging and enchanting than its Benedick.
The DIY quality is very much part of what makes it charming, and makes it possible to agree to overlook some of the dodgier missteps of acting or staging.
In setting and tone, Much Ado manages to smoothly present a contemporary vision of the play's original setting of wealth and ease -- this is how the better, effortlessly hipper, half lives.
Nothing revolutionary here, and one could make a pretty strong argument that this film exists so Whedon and his actors could have a weekend in a scenic cottage and get drunk together. But it's never self-indulgent. It's just here to have a good time.
Whedon adapts William Shakespeare's feather-light comedy into a bubbly cocktail party of a movie - and gives his stable of regular actors some of the Bard's meatiest dialogue on which to chew.
OK, Marvel fan boys. I reluctantly sat through 'The Avengers,' now it's your turn to reciprocate by seeing a more erudite offering from your sainted Joss Whedon.
Audience Reviews for Much Ado About Nothing
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Discussion Forum
| Topic | Last Post | Replies |
|---|---|---|
| Joss and Nathan team up again. | 4 months ago | 4 |
| Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat's Review | 3 months ago | 2 |
| Fred Topel's review | 4 months ago | 0 |
| Positive Reviews vs Negative Reviews | 3 months ago | 0 |
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Foreign Titles
- Mucho ruido y pocas nueces (ES)
Shakespeare's romcom plot 1.0 is a bit...tame? for modern day. A rather huge deal is made over Hero's virginity, so much that when she is suspected of infidelity on top of fornication, Claudio, her betrothed, could enact such vitriolic public reprobation, her family could pretend she died at such horrific slander, and an otherwise gentle noblewoman would defend her cousin's honor by decreeing the slanderer's murder. Despite the dated material, Whedon adds some valiant updated touches: changing Conrade to a woman to add movement and intrigue to the scene with Sean Maher's icy and conniving Don Jon, hinting at Beatrice and Benedick's clandestine no-strings trysts and subsequent rancor because she presumably wants more and he's a confirmed bachelor, having Benedick deliver his Act II Scene 3 monologue while working out.
Whedon alumni Amy Acker and Alexis Denisof take on [their first] leading roles [in the Whedonverse] as attracting opposites Beatrice and Benedick. The pair rattle off Venusian versus Martian barbs, pratfall like seasoned Vaudevillians, and gradually generate palpable and ardent chemistry in the climactic scene of Beatrice commanding Benedick to murder Claudio as proof of his devotion.
The supporting cast is all charming and fun, especially sweet-faced Fran Kranz as the lovestruck Claudio. Having only seen Acker in supporting broad comedy or restrained drama roles on "HIMYM" and "Dollhouse," Denisof as the hair-helmeted ponce, Sandy Rivers, on "HIMYM," and Kranz as the exuberantly nerdy Topher on "Dollhouse" and stoner trope in "Cabin In the Woods," I'm really quite impressed with the acting of these three.
The iambic rhythms of Elizabethan speech did seem a mouthful for most of the cast at first, but it eventually ironed itself out, or I got over it. I'm always leery of contemporary Shakespearean adaptations that rely too much on physical humor and meaningful looks to clue the audience into the arcane dialect, but there was only a minimum of that, and what minimum there was, was organically funny.