Sometimes as a great fan of Shakespeare, though certainly
I am not a studied scholar of his work, I long for adaptations that get away
from the stuffy theatrical tradition popularized by Laurence Olivier and Kenneth
Branagh. Though I have often found much to admire in Branagh’s work, it still
fails to feel truly inspired or inspiring and instead comes across as an
exercise in literary interpretation rather than a production of human emotion.
But it is exactly that quality in Joss Whedon’s adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing that I admire it
so damn much and why I’m willing to call it the best Shakespeare adaptation
committed to film.
