Love's Labour's Lost Review
by Chuck Schwartz (chuck AT crankycritic DOT com)May 26th, 2000
Love's Labour's Lost
Rated [PG], 95 minutes
Starring Kenneth Branagh, Alicia Silverstone and Nathan Lane Based on the play by William Shakespeare
Adapted and Directed by Kenneth Branagh
website: www.miramax.com
IN SHORT: An all-singing, all-dancing, all-sensational revamp of a play first staged in 1596.
As I've written it before, you could put Shakespeare's words through a meat grinder, add an egg and some bread crumbs, whack it into palatable little meat loafs and serve with a nice chianti and you still would have to double over backwards to do serious harm to his stories. That's why said stories still work four hundred plus years later. It's also a matter of fact that the full text of his plays can take hours to unfurl, when orated from the stage (or screen. Rent Kenneth Branagh's uncut Hamlet if you want to test your endurance levels -- and we liked KB's version, btw). So here we have Love's Labour's Lost, Branagh's audacious take on one of Shakespeare's simplest stories; his version owing as much to vaudeville and the Marx Brothers as it does to certain stylish movies of the 1930's and 40's.
What Branagh does to Shakespeare is something that is so simple, and simply outrageous that we hunkered down to an early morning screening 'cuz we had to see his adaptation of Love's Labour's Lost with fresh eyes. Now, remember that we don't compare to Source Material, not that our knowledge of Shakespeare extends very far, which allows us to avoid the purist view which may liken Branagh's take as the first sign of Armageddon. It's not.
Like Richard III a couple of years back, LLL is set in the World War II time period, here with France preparing for war. In the neighboring country of Navarre, the King (Alessandro Nivola) has decided that war is for sissies and has issued a proclamation that all men of his kingdom; in this case specifically himself and his three closest courtiers, shall devote themselves to intellectual study and spiritual enhancement. This means a full day's fast each week, food every other day, and only three hours of rest before returning to their study of all things wise and wonderful.
Oh, one more thing. No women. Not to talk to, to consort with, to wine and/or dine and/or ... you know ... for three years. Penalties for breaking their solemn vows include having your tongue ripped out, or more major stuff. And while, Longaville (Matthew Lillard) and Dumaine (Adrian Lester) acknowledge their Word of Honor by signing their names to the Proclamation, Berowne (Kenneth Branagh) hesitates, pointing out that "the Princess of France is an intelligent woman and you may need to negotiate treaties with her" (I'm paraphrasing badly), so a lack of tongue could prove to be a problem. Besides, he sings to the King while cueing an offscreen orchestra, "I'd Rather Charleston". Yes, sings. The women will eventually respond (I won't dance. Don't Ask Me) as the men find themselves smitten by the Princess (Alicia Silverstone) and her Court (Emily Mortimer, Carmen Ejogo and Natascha McElhone). Love's Labour's Lost is a randy comedy where the boys must sneakily communicate with the girls -- their chosen messenger is an illiterate clown named Costard (Nathan Lane, mixing Harpo Marx and Senor Wences into one racoon-coated personage) who delivers the right letters to the wrong people -- which evolves into a bittersweet romance mode as the inevitable war reaches the border of Navarre.
Until that point, though, the flick is packed with just about every song worth remembering from any Fred and Ginger movie. The songs by George and Ira Gershwin, Irving Berlin and Cole Porter, among the best known names all take the place of pages of dialog that has been excised. All of 'em, unlike most musicals, fit with their placement and move the story along. If you're old enough to know what came before rock 'n' roll, there's not a dud song in the bunch. What remains, according to the notes, is about 30% of the original play and, frankly, had I not read that in black and white I wouldn't have known it.
On average, a first run movie ticket will run you Eight Bucks. Were Cranky able to set his own price to Love's Labour's Lost, he would have paid...
$7.00
A perfect '30's musical.
Cranky Critic® is a Registered Trademark of, and Copyright © 2000 by, Chuck Schwartz. All Rights Reserved. Cranky on the web at
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