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Love's Labour's Lost
Hollyfeld, here. Last time on Shakespearean Gimmick Week we covered what is considered one of the best films of all time, Sir Laurence Olivier’s Henry V, but today we look at a more universally pandered attempt to reinvent the bard. I personally disagree with this, but allow me to continue with my introduction for another moment.
Upon the release of William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet, director Baz Luhrmann once mentioned in a video that if Shakespeare were alive today, he would fill his movies with sex and violence as well, because that is what is popular. People forget that for all the glitz and romance surrounding old Will’s genius, he was the still the guy who wrote the blockbusters. A Midsummer Night’s Dream was, for its day, as goofball a comedy as anything There’s Something About Mary related. Romeo and Juliet is, of course, filled with as much sex and violence as something like Natural Born Killers. But if these would be the types of films he would make today, what kinds of films would he have made ten, twenty, even fifty years ago? Today’s film attempts to answer that question, and does so (I think) with great success. Today’s Look Closer... focuses on Kenneth Branagh’s Love’s Labour’s Lost, probably the world’s first Shakespearean musical.
Some might remember this film as squeaking its way onto my top ten list for last year (really squeaking – I saw it the night before I wrote the damn thing), but most others remember it (if at all) as a film that most critics ignored, and never opened in their town. Well, this is a shame. The concept of a Shakespearean musical using the actual language of the bard (as opposed to more modern retellings such as Kiss Me Kate and West Side Story) had, to my knowledge never been attempted before, and it is probably easy to understand why. Besides being derided by purists and being considered "too slight" by critics, it must also be realized that this movie caters to what could only be called a "fringe" market – people who like Shakespeare and goofy musicals. It’s hard enough to find one of those, let alone both in the same person.
Love’s Labour’s Lost is not the most famous of Shakespeare’s plays, because it is arguably one of his least brilliant. One critic referred to it as (paraphrasing) "a fashionable comedy several hundred years out of fashion." So at best I one could compare it to a movie that was once great, but which, today, seems like a bit of a relic (The Breakfast Club, for example, more and more seems like a statement about the eighties than youth in general). I suppose it is appropriate that is should be filmed for the first time (with the intention of theatrical release) in a style also considered out of date.
The tale focuses on The King of Navarre (Alessandro Nivola, better known as Pollux Troy from Face/Off – you won’t recognize him here) who, shortly before World War II, decides to shut his royal court off from the world in order to devote his existence to study. The men of the court (Kenneth Branagh – getting the best lines as usual, Adrian Lester – of Primary Colors fame, and Matthew Lillard – Scream), along with the King, agree to sleep less, read more, and not even TALK to a woman during the time of their self-imprisonment. Naturally, however, women come along, in the form of the Princess of France (Alicia Silverstone) and her entourage (Natasha McElhone – The Truman Show, Emily Mortimer, Carmen Ejogo), with whom the men quickly fall in love with. So they all set about at secretly wooing each other, with humorous and musical results.
Love’s Labour’s Lost is at its best when the music serves the text and the right performers are on screen. The first two numbers, in particular, have a particularly quick transition from the text and are quite jarring, although Branagh slows it down a bit quickly thereafter (and those two age better with multiple viewings). And of course Kenneth Branagh’s greatest failing as a Shakespearean director is to get a consistent cast – in every one of his adaptations of the bard there have been at least a few sour notes to lower the overall quality of the experience (Robin Williams and Jack Lemmon in Hamlet, for example). In this case the two weak links can easily be discovered as Alicia Silverstone and Matthew Lillard, who, to their credit, are young, and can at least dance well.
Highlights? Timothy Spall’s "I Get A Kick Out Of You" is quite marvelous, and is funnier than anything in wide release right now. Nathan Lane is always amusing when he’s on screen, and his "There’s No Business Like Show Business" is quite delightful. Add to that an adorable "The Way You Look Tonight," a sumptuous "Let’s Face The Music And Dance" and easily the best version of "They Can’t Take That Away From Me" ever placed on screen (the latter being worth the price of admission alone).
I stand by this film’s placement on my top ten list of last year, as it is a delight to behold and would easily rank among my favorite musicals of all time. I just hope to one day see a stage production of this version of Love’s Labour’s Lost. Someone get on that, would you? Love’s Labour’s Lost is available on video and DVD. Anyone interested in more Gimmicky Shakespeare films, in case some of you are, might also want to take a look at Tromeo And Juliet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, and Laurence Olivier’s more metaphysical version of Hamlet (the only Shakespearean movie ever to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards).
Next Time On Look Closer… Guest Reviews! (I Hope...)
Jean-François Allaire (aka DeadPool)
Questions, comments, praise etc. Email me at deadpool@tnmc.org
Jean-François Allaire is TNMC's first columnist. At only 24 years old he has become a respected entertainment journalist, with his columns appearing in Corona's Coming Attractions and Scr(i)pt magazine. He also writes a monthly column in Screenwriters Monthly entitled 'The Last Word.' Hailing from Montreal this young writer is determined to dig up all the details on the movies before they hit your local theater. If you're part of a movie production then you really need to be talking to him.
