Modern romantic comedies have bled the opposites attract story to death. Joss Whedon (after the Avengers) puts a spin on the genre by going back to the roots of the rom com: William Shakespeare. Much Ado About Nothing is a magical transporting experience when focused on Benedick’s (Alexis Denisof) courtship of Beatrice (Amy Acker). Much Ado About Nothing’s central relationship is strong enough to hold together the rest of the film’s weaker subplots.
Much Ado About Nothing is about two major relationships: Benedick and Beatrice have been in a war of wits for years and do not believe in marriage. Claudio (Fran Kranz) and Hero (Jillian Morgese) are young lovers who innocently fall for each other to the chagrin of Claudio’s uncle Don John (Sean Maher) who wants to break up the marriage.
Much Ado About Nothing successfully blends humor in dialogue and the slapstick better than most recent films. Whedon’s script adapted from Shakespeare takes about 20 minutes or so to get used to, but the actors are very good at conveying the emotions behind the words and the shock wares off and becomes easier to follow as the story goes along. Nearly every character gets a good joke in, although Benedick, Beatrice, and Officer Dogberry (Nathan Fillion) get the best lines. Benedick and Beatrice get the best slapstick scenes when they are forced to eavesdrop on conversations. The pair successfully execute pratfalls and commit to the over the top ballet they are asked to perform.
Once the humor switches to drama in the second half, the stronger storylines shine and the boring ones lack payoff. Benedick and Beatrice’s will they won’t they feels organically compelling after misinformation drew them together because they require the most transformation to end up together. Hero and Claudio’s story wraps up in Much Ado’s first half and requires numerous contrivances to keep the story interesting in its second half. Because the couple ends up where they were at the end of Much Ado’s first act, the payoff isn’t as rewarding as the Benedick/Beatrice story.
Whedon purposefully kept the budget for Much Ado About Nothing to a minimum. As a result, he filmed the movie in his own home and wrote the soundtrack himself. The movie is beautifully shot in black and white, making great use of window shading and sunlight from all the open views from his property. An iPhone even gets to report some important information. The score does simplistic scene setting and provides nice backdrop for the party montage.
Whedon recruited many actors from other films/television programs he was involved in, casting with mixed results. Amy Acker and Alexis Denisof are winning and wonderful as Beatrice and Benedick, establishing their natural chemistry in anger, dialogue, wit, and drama and winning over the audience with their eventual fate. Nathan Fillion gets some of the best laughs as Dogberry, especially when he is offended. The rest of the cast is pretty much solid with the exception of Sean Maher, who is not quite evil enough or compelling enough to get us invested in Don John’s doings.
Much Ado About Nothing modernizes Shakespeare for a new generation. Those suffering from the Leo DiCaprio Romeo and Juliet misfire need not worry about Joss Whedon’s take on a Shakespeare comedy. In fact, Joss Whedon’s home can be the setting of many more little projects like this if he can keep recruiting quality people and modernizing Shakespeare. Can you imagine Hamlet’s life in the TMZ era?