Splatter: on FILM

Straight Shakespeare, and all black and white, but half way through I forgot both. This is a modern drunken romp through an old story.

Title and meaning: Shakespeare knew that this was a play based on misunderstanding and people making much of nothings, of well-placed bywords and hearsay. It’s all the dramatic irony of friends preying upon each other’s longings and relationships. A timely compliment or critique allows for the two feistiest creatures to believe that the other loves him, loves her. Then all infatuations are tested when exclusivity comes into question. The whole things looks to turn tragedy until you recall that Shakespeare played either /or, the twain never to meet. So it is comedy and all set aright with a few twists of fate and three veiled faces testing the young man’s honor and metal. Public disgrace makes room for public joy and, of course, a dance of forgiveness.

See this film if you love the play. It does cross more moral lines than the play, but it maintains the PG-13. It gives new faces to beloved characters, and the actors are true professionals and Joss Whedon own friends gathering for this revival play at his own home. The players ring true as best friends spending the summer together at a friend’s house filming for fun. So much so that it feels a bit peep-holeish at times.

The favorite guest is Nathan Fillion as Dogberry, a role I happily admit to playing in college. The lines are still dear and so funny. Fillion is lovable in every role, especially as title character in his show “Castle.”

Whedon is proving Jack-of-all & master-of-all. It seems he is a Midas where film is concerned, directing and writing sci-fi, action, and now Shakespeare well. Should he take up knitting, he could easily pearl a city.