Shall
we compare Shakespeare to a superhero?
His work transcends time and space, after all. No less an authority than Joss Whedon, the
director of The Avengers, proves the
point once again with his modernized yet still satisfying Much Ado About Nothing (trailer here), which opens
today in New York.
As
you really ought to know, Ado is a
comic tale involving sibling rivalry, mistaken identity, and of course,
love. Don Pedro has just routed an
insurrection led by his deceitful brother, Don John. To enjoy the afterglow of victory, Don Pedro
and his trusted lieutenants, the roguish Benedick and the earnest young Claudio,
accept the hospitality of Leonato, the governor of Messina. Don
John also arrives with his brother. They
have supposedly buried the hatchet, but their truce is decidedly frosty.
In
contrast, Benedick brashly presses his longstanding “merry war” with Beatrice, Leonato’s
tart tongued niece. To mix Shakespearean quotations, Leonato and Don Pedro
decide the sarcastic couple “doth protest too much” and secretly contrive to
bring them together, like practical jokester cupids. Benedick and Beatrice get all the play’s best
lines, but the above-board romance between Claudio and Leonato’s daughter Hero
supplies all the plot points. As he
instructs his remaining retainers, Don John would be quite pleased to see their
happy union sabotaged, for the sake of his revenge and general mean
spiritedness.
Shot
during the twelve days in-between the filming and post-production of Whedon’s
Marvel blockbuster, Ado is certainly
a laid back affair, but it is still strikingly cinematic. There might have been limited time for
pre-production, but Whedon was fortunate to have a pretty polished script from
William Shakespeare. Maybe he found it
on the “Black List.” Set entirely within Whedon’s real life home, designed by
his architect wife and co-producer Kai Cole, this Ado updates the costumes and trappings to modern times, but wisely
retains the Bard’s original language.
Essentially, Leonato and the Dons are politicians or gangsters. Is there any difference between the two? Either way, the wardrobe largely consists of
dark suits, sun glasses, and ear pieces.
While
Whedon’s modernization is a bit eccentric, Jay Hunter’s stylish black-and-white
cinematography really helps sell it. Frankly,
Much Ado is one of Shakespeare’s most
bullet-proof comedies, probably ranking just below Twelfth Night. Nonetheless,
Whedon’s game cast does not merely get by.
They have a genuine flair for the Shakespearean language. Alexis Denisof and Amy Acker make a terrific
Benedick and Beatrice. The audience will find themselves laughing at their
zingers, which speaks volumes for their zesty delivery.
Clark
Gregg (the soon to be reincarnated SHIELD Agent Phil Coulson) also makes a
solid Leonato, nicely conveying his mischievous and mature sides, while
providing a familiar face for Whedon’s Marvel fans to latch onto. Poor Hero is always the problematic part, but
newcomer Jillian Morgese (an extra on The
Avengers) gives her a bit of pluck and substance this time around. As for good old Dogberry (here reinvented as
the captain of the gated community’s rent-a-cops), Nathan Fillion truly hams it
up, but that is exactly what he is supposed to do.
