Film Review of Loves Labours Lost
Year: 2000 Reviewer: Chris Docker
It's a song and dance version of the Shakespeare, lovingly created, and all the old movie favourites (Cheek to Cheek, Let's Face the Music and Dance, There's No Business Like Show Business etc) used to heighten the story. The dancing is mostly non-professional dancers and they use colour, sets and clever choreography to make it effective rather than technically difficult dance routines. Alicia Silverstone shows she's capable of much more than teen movies by giving a heart and soul (if fairly undemanding) performance and Kenneth Branagh has never looked so young and alive as he bounces into song and dance! The interpretations of the classic songs are wonderfully inventive and a joy to behold. Even the slapstick is handled wonderfully.
New interpretations of Shakespeare, or films of Shakespeare generally, should aim to use the medium of film to bring out more of the content of the play than can be achieved on stage. This is sometimes done by sheer budget and labour (as in Branagh's Hamlet) or by inventive use of the medium (Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet, or Polanski's Macbeth). Branagh's Love's Labour's Lost falls into the second category and happily avoids leaden readings (such as Hoffman's Midsummer Night's Dream) or using Shakespeare as a mere device for artistic flamboyance (such as in Taymor's Titus).
Rating: 8/10
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