Much Ado About Nothing (2012)

Directed by: Joss Whedon
Country: USA

Review: Joss Whedon made a bold move, in his modern adaptation of William Shakespeare’s play “Much Ado About Nothing”. As you can imagine, the approach here nothing has to do with “Serenity” or “The Avengers”, his previous and successful experiences on sci-fi. The story, despite having been molded to fit in the current times, doesn’t get too far from the original, telling the adventures of two pairs of lovers: Benedick (Alexis Denisov) and Beatrice (Amy Acker), and Claudio (Fran Kranz) and Hero (Jillian Morgese), who will have to go a long way before decide to get married. With intensive dialogues and refined language expected from a play, Whedon was able to conceive a balanced cinematic adaptation, in which drama, comedy, and romance, are well intertwined. Occasionally, he overdid on some funny scenes, like when Beatrice falls stupidly down the stairs or skids on the kitchen floor, but others are superb with special relevance to those involving Dogberry and Verge, two clumsy but efficient watchmen, played by Nathan Fillon and Tom Lenk, respectively. Whedon’s camera was restless, presenting us the story through a huge amount of different angles and always searching for intimacy in his close-ups. I believe that “Much Ado About Nothing” could have given even more than it did, particularly on the emotional level, but it is certainly an enjoyable film, which I easily followed without distractions. In black and white.