grantss Surprisingly light on substance.A Kenneth Branagh written-and-directed adaptation of the Shakespeare play. Set in WW2 for the movie, The King of Navarre and his three best friends have sworn off wine, women and song for three years, in the interests of studying. But then the beautiful princess of France, and her equally-lovely ladies-in-waiting arrive, and their oaths are quickly and sorely tested...Fun and funny at times but ultimately quite empty. It is short to begin with - about 85 minutes. Then you have the fact that this version is a musical and the amount of actual movie time is even shorter. In the end it just seems so full of empty schmaltz, fluff and padding. Reasonably moving ending though.On the subject of the music, I generally dislike musicals but the choice of music here is pretty good: George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Kern and Hammerstein, Irving Berlin. While I would still have preferred no musical numbers - it just wrecks any plausibility and continuity - it could have been a lot worse.Decent cast - Branagh, Alicia Silverstone, Alessandro Nivola, Natascha McElhone, Emily Mortimer, Nathan Lane, Timothy Spall - who put in solid performances. Don't know what Matthew Lillard is doing there though (note that I didn't include him in the "decent cast" list). He is conspicuous by his lack of acting skills and should stick to C-grade frat farces.

angelofvic This production is indeed a worthy entry into the world of Shakespeare on DVD. Right now the only significant DVD productions of Love's Labour's Lost are the BBC production from the 1980s, and this one. There is a Globe Theatre production out on DVD this year, but I know nothing about it.To get back to the two main DVD productions -- the BBC's is minimalist, due to their low budget, and wordy, rapidly spoken, and hard to understand, yet devoid of subtitles. I don't consider it perfect by any means, for those reasons. In fact, it can be quite off-putting and dull.Branagh's, on the other hand, is easily understood, has subtitles available, and is clearly spoken with modern pronunciation. Likewise, scenes that bear dwelling on and getting the most juice out of -- such as the end -- are dealt with lovingly and languidly, as they should be, whereas in the BBC version they just whiz by.The controversial things about Branagh's production are the addition of songs and the deletion of substantial portions of the text. However, I must say, that to get across the gist of the play, many of the scenes deleted by Branagh are not needed, and some of them are in fact irrelevant and irritating to a modern audience, and so justly removed.Lastly, the musical numbers, which are the most controversial: I felt that there were a few too many musical numbers, and several of them were overproduced to the extent they seemed silly and out of place. That said, I did not object in principle to the presence of the songs. I think Branagh just got carried away with the number of them and with the over-the-topness of some of them.I'll sum up as follows: If you are new to this play -- which is one of Shakespeare's wordiest and in a sense most difficult, I recommend availing yourself of BOTH the BBC version AND of this Branagh version. Having seen both, I think you will have gotten the gist and thrust and enjoyment of the play in a way that neither production would give you on its own. I think the stuffy wordiness of the BBC production needs to be balanced by this Branagh version, and the breezy modernism of the Branagh version can stand to be completed by the unabridged BBC version. Enjoy!

Ed This odd production of Shakespeare's 2nd-rate comedy is not bad with its admixture of various old standard song-and-dance numbers from American musical comedies by Kern, the Gershwins and Irving Berlin as well as real and not so real newsreel clips from World War 2. That it doesn't really make sense is balanced by the fact that it has the courage of its anachronisms and doesn't try to do so.The song-and-dance numbers are mostly only tenuously connected to the action of the play but this is part of the film's charm. Though I wonder why Nathan Lane is channeling Ethel Merman in the song from Berlin's "Annie Get your Gun", "There's no Business Like Show Business" but, never mind, it works well enough.I only feel that after a while I have gotten the joke and wish it would soon end.And while only Kenneth Branagh is really a Shakespearean actor, the others do well enough in this artificial atmosphere though the women's forced merriment gets to be a trial. And Miss Silverstone's acting is generally adequate until the mood suddenly darkens towards the end and then she's not up to it at all.The DVD extra with the actors' comments is quite helpful and, yes, they prerecorded their songs (you can watch them doing it here.) and lip-synching to their own voices afterwards.

jerichobrawler Boy, Kenneth Branagh will try anything, won't he? Even infusing Shakespeare's comedy with a string of Gershwin-era songs and dances. But while his Much Ado About Nothing was a frothy, wonderful gem, Love's Labour's Lost . . . just didn't quite work. It's a noble try, though.Whether the concept itself is flawed is up for debate. (Surely some Shakespeare purists were up in arms when this came out!) What cannot be argued, however, is that Branagh's cast is unable to pull this off. They simply are trying to hard at what should come naturally, and the audience can't help but notice. His direction also sinks the film at various points, and as a result, the film jerks from scene to scene, from song to song, ultimately culminating in a collection of bits that never gel into a unified whole.That's not to say that the movie doesn't have its strengths. There is a sense of fun that pervades the film which is quite pleasant. The costumes and art direction are appropriately light and beautiful, and some of the comedy moments are quite fun. Each actor also has his or her strength. Alessandro Nivola (Laurel Canyon, Mansfield Park) is the best singer, Adrian Lester (Primary Colors) the best dancer, Branagh the best actor, and Matthew Lillard (Scooby-Doo) . . . sure is tall. The supporting cast (Nathan Lane, Alicia Silverstone, Emily Mortimer, et. al.) each do their best to rise above the film's shortcomings, as well.Ultimately, the audience ends up really trying to like this movie, but the flaws are too great to dismiss. 6/10 stars.