Much Ado About Nothing (Joss Whedon)

Sometimes, I really hate Joss Whedon. Given a tidy sum to direct the Avengers and a contractual week off between shooting and editing, what does he do with his life? He retreats to his utterly gorgeous house with his 'rep company' of actors and makes a low-budget version of Much Ado About Nothing. You know; for funsies.

This being the case, you could almost want him to fail, but you know what? He doesn't. Instead he produces an interesting take on one of the world's favourite Shakespeare plays, albeit one that is not without its problems. It's basically a light rom-com that goes pitch black in the middle and then at the end everyone acts as if it didn't. It also has a strangely undefined villain, whose self-professed motivation is basically that no-one likes him so he doesn't like them and he's going to fuck with them.

In general the playing was good, and if not every note was perfect, it's doing pretty well for a week's work. It's nice to see Clark Gregg working his range a little - especially when Leonato wishes Hero dead, which is a tough act to play and a harder one to come back from - and no-one felt overly stagey. Alexis Denisof was never quite light enough as Bendick, but I'm comparing him to the Branagh film version and David Tennant on stage, so I am holding to a high standard. Nathan Fillion could easily have overcooked Dogberry, but played it nicely close.

Did I mention I got to see Tennant play this on stage? I did. I still want Whedon's house.

As with any even vaguely successful Shakespeare adaptation, there are a lot of interesting choices. To pick up on a few that I noticed: Wordless flashbacks to cement the nature of Beatrice and Benedick's past, somewhat reminiscent of Branagh's similar device with Hamlet and Ophelia; Beatrice and Benedick's opening volleys, taking a cue from Beatrice's line 'I wonder that you be still talking, Signor, nobody marks you' is actually offset from the action, rather than being watched by the other characters as if it were a spectator event; Claudio's 'I'll hold my mind, were she an Ethiope' being maintained as an 'in universe' faux pas.

In terms of adaptation, the use of a modern setting with political motivations and an ever-present photographer capturing every public moment allows the story to maintain the importance of public honour and in particular public shame, although the middle eight, as it were, is still kind of jarring. Dogberry and the watch worked well as cops, and the replacement of a sword with a pistol when Benedick calls Claudio out adds a chilling fatality to the challenge. It is much harder to doubt that he means business when he's strapping on a gat for the purpose, rather than just carrying a sword as a matter of dress.