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As You Like It
Under discussion:
As You Like It
(2007)
Shakespeare’s throw-away title,
As You Like It
, and the play’s classification as a comedy, led me to think that the play would be, well, funny. When I read the play before seeing the movie, I realized that the play has a fair amount of dark material—a brother who overthrows and banishes his older brother, and an elder brother who attempt to burn his little brother to death. I also realized that the play jumps around a great deal—back and forth between the court and the forest of Arden, and among many different couples all of whom eventually wed, of course.
Although I admire most of Kenneth Branagh’s Shakespeare work, with
As You Like It
(2006), he decides as director to emphasize the serious side of the play. This does not work because the play is, when all is said and done, a comedy. One actress, Romola Garai (
V
anity Fair
,
Atonement
) stands out by playing her character with broad, comedic strokes—an enthused, dizzy blonde. But all others bring out the serious side of their characters. Bryce Dallas Howard, in the lead role of Rosalind, is highly emotive and captivating on screen but manifests the trauma of being thrust out of court and the torment of being smitten by love. I think the emphasis on the heavy side of the play is what causes film critics to complain vaguely that the movie “rarely catches fire” and “lacks enthusiasm.”
posted on Monday, October 29, 2007 2:54 AM by
JimBell
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