LLL

So my play is Love's Labour Lost. I watched the movie version (Kenneth Branagh and company) and found it to be very . . . odd.

It was shortened, as most all of Shakespeare's plays are when moved to the big screeen (a topic for another post, if I get around to it), but it was also altered in the strangest manner. The setting was no longer in Shakespeare's day, but rather it was during the 1920's. This, however, was not what was odd. What really through me for a loop was the music. I don't mean the regular songs of Shakespeare. No, in this edition they decided to make it an all out musical and break into song and dance at random moments.

Now, I don't object to musicals on principal, but when the music is so fundamentally different than the film's dialogue (most of the songs came from the twenties or were styled as if they were from that time) it seems off. In the end, I chose to fast-forward through most of the songs, simply because I could not stand to listen to them any longer.

I would not really recommend this movie to anyone looking for a Shakespeare movie, but it might be enjoyable if you liked Musicals and do not get so engrossed in the language that after watching a production you are speaking in iambic pentameter.