Tuesday, November 23, 2004
Screwball Shakespeare
Last night we watched Kenneth Branagh's "Love's Labours Lost." If you ever want to see a crazy movie--and I mean certifiably insane, bonkers, nutcase, loo-loo--this is it. Shelly said, "This is like Shakespeare on acid." I added, "Shakespeare on laughing gas."
It's part Shakespeare, part "Singin' in the Rain," part melodramatic screwball comedy. Branagh has set it in 1939 as a musical, with Gershwin/Porter/Berlin songs. This may be the only movie I've ever seen where I spent most of the time laughing, not so much at the jokes (though I did laugh at them), but at the fact that a movie like this simply exists. A classic Shakespearean monologue on the joys of love melds seamlessly into "Cheek to Cheek." Cheap sight gags that play on Shakespeare's words abound. Heck, Nathan Lane is in it, and he throws a rubber chicken around. What else could you want in a movie?
It's part Shakespeare, part "Singin' in the Rain," part melodramatic screwball comedy. Branagh has set it in 1939 as a musical, with Gershwin/Porter/Berlin songs. This may be the only movie I've ever seen where I spent most of the time laughing, not so much at the jokes (though I did laugh at them), but at the fact that a movie like this simply exists. A classic Shakespearean monologue on the joys of love melds seamlessly into "Cheek to Cheek." Cheap sight gags that play on Shakespeare's words abound. Heck, Nathan Lane is in it, and he throws a rubber chicken around. What else could you want in a movie?
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