Much Ado About Nothing

The film has all of Shakespeare's sparkling dialogue; but it is set in modern day West Coast America. Messina is Santa Monica and Dogberry and Verges are bumbling LA cops. Joss Whedon (the director of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Marvel's The Avengers and many others which we are sure are familiar to the Film on Friday audience) took a break from his usual day job to film this movie at his own house over 12 days with a group of friends.

With the use of flashback, Whedon advances the unusual (but certainly not unprecedented) interpretation that Beatrice (Amy Acker) and Benedick (Alexis Denisof) have been in a relationship before and are re-establishing their love rather than finding it for the first time. The use of black and white allows reesonances with 1930s and 1940s screwball romantic comedies. Further proof, as if we needed it, that Shakespeare's plays can constantly be reinterpreted.

Links to reviews

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/jun/16/much-ado-about-nothing-review

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/filmreviews/10118555/Much-Ado-About-Nothing-review.html

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/569913e4-d40a-11e2-a464-00144feab7de.html

Link to trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reYclxg3kts