Kate Beckinsale made her feature film debut as ingénue Hero. It’s got a killer cast – from then-real-life couple Branagh and Thompson as sparring lovers Beatrice and Benedick to Denzel Washington as a prince to Michael Keaton as Shakespeare’s most hysterical clown, Dogberry, to Keanu Reeves in what is simultaneously one of his most perplexing, hilarious, and entertaining performances. Much Ado About Nothing is not just the greatest Kenneth Branagh Shakespeare film, it’s perhaps the greatest cinematic Shakespeare adaptation ever. In a sense, All Is True allows him the chance to both have a sense of humor about his body of work while re-asserting the value of its existence.
Here, Branagh becomes the literal author of his own success. As Henry Wriothesley, McKellen gets the best scene in the film – one that hits on everything from Shakespeare’s rivals to his rumored sexuality to the authorship question before beautifully summing up why the plays have endured across the centuries. It’s boosted by appearances from deft Shakespearean actors like Judi Dench and Ian McKellen. In this case, it’s the nature of genius and what it means to lead an ordinary life, as well as themes of loss, redemption, and family strife. Branagh treats Shakespeare like Shakespeare treats historical figures – using the loose facts of their lives to paint a more sweeping story that gets at grander themes. For anyone who loves the Bard (if you’re not, how have you got this far in this article?), it’s a winking tribute to the handful of facts we have about his life, with plenty of nods to theories people have developed based on the largest body of evidence – his plays. With All Is True, Branagh manages to do mostly all of those things. You want to honor the man and his work without falling prey to putting him on an infallible pedestal. Making a Shakespeare biopic is no easy task – and it’s even harder to strike the right balance of whimsy and respect. It’s a mildly enchanting attempt to replicate a classic musical – but in this case, a rose by any other name does not smell as sweet. This is the only film adaptation of this particular Shakespeare play, but it’s still far from Branagh’s best – if only because its charms lie more in the musical numbers than the text itself, divorcing the proceedings from the very Shakespeare-ness of it all. They are an eclectic assortment, featuring Branagh himself as one of the young lovers, as well as Nathan Lane as a vaudeville worthy clown, and Alicia Silverstone of all people as the Princess of France (it’s very disconcerting expecting an “As if!” to punctuate the cadences of iambic pentameter at any moment). Dance numbers pay tribute to Golden Age musicals, with clear nods to Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, and more – albeit with a far less fleet-footed cast. Interspersed among the soliloquies and verse are standards from the likes of Cole Porter, the Gershwins, and Irving Berlin. He makes the baffling, yet mostly delightful, choice of turning it into a 1940s-set musical. Branagh does an admirable job of tackling a lesser play. One of Shakespeare’s earliest comedies, Love’s Labour’s Lost lacks the precision of later plays like Twelfth Night, As You Like It, and Much Ado – something any production has to come up against.
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