As You Like It

I am a complete fool for Shakespeare renditions and as much as I have resisted it, I am such a little girl for Kenneth Branagh.  I waited years and years for his 1996 “Hamlet” to be released and when it came out last week I couldn’t wait to see it again.  “Hamlet” was never my favorite simply because of its popularity.  Any fool can spout lines from that play and the nail in the coffin was Mel Gibson.  If I lived to be five thousand years old, I never needed to see Riggs/MadMax butchering Shakespeare.  But, this is not about “Hamlet”, this is about last year’s “As You Like It”.

I was familiar with this play only in passing.  I’ve read it a few times but never really cared for it.  It seemed too similar to a few of the other plays and all the subplots are more than a little convoluted.  I won’t even try to explain all of the crossover marriages because they really aren’t that important and most of you are probably more familiar with this particular play than I am.

The play (as written by The Bard) takes place in a dukedom in France, mostly in the woods outside of the duke’s lands.  This version transports the story to early 19^th century Japan and I think it was a very pretty move but unimportant because most of the action takes place in the forest and aside from minor points, this story could be told in any forest.

A happy and respected Duke is enjoying an evening’s entertainment when his evil brother breaks in (ninja style this time), overthrows and exiles his brother.  Both brothers are played by Brian Blessed, white haired for the good duke, black hair for the evil duke.  Good duke’s daughter (Rosalind) is to remain in the castle and keep evil duke’s daughter (Celia) company.  Living in the court, Rosalind falls in love with Orlando.  Orlando is exiled because he is at odds with his eldest brother.  When bad duke becomes paranoid about his good duke brother, he tries to kill Rosalind but Celia intervenes and the two girls take on new names, Rosalind dresses as a boy and they leave the castle with the court fool and go into exile in the woods.  Minor contrivances aside, they meet up with the good duke who is attracting all kinds of people that choose to give up court life and live in the woods with him.  Orlando confides in Ganymede (Rosalind in drag) that he is in love with Rosalind.  You get the usual Shakespearian circle of lovers where twenty people stand in a circle and each of them is in love with the person on their left.  “Bob loves Joan who loves Alex who loves Carol who loves John who loves Sandy who loves Bob” type of thing.  In the end, the confusion is cleared up and everyone is in love with the right people, Rosalind comes out of drag, Orlando and his brother embrace there is a mass wedding and we are all happy in the woods.  Until, another of Orlando’s brothers comes to report that bad duke heard about good duke’s good fortune under the circumstances of exile and has let out from the castle to kill his brother outright.  Along the way he comes across a priest and becomes a religious convert to the point of abdicating his lands to his brother and living in exile himself.  We have a song, a dance and the end.

It was entertaining.  I liked the production of the movie and I always like Brian Blessed.  This time around Branagh kept himself out of the shot and stayed behind the camera.  The red-haired chick from “The Village” did a great job as Rosalind and I didn’t expect that either.  I haven’t seen much range out of her in most of the other movies I’ve seen her in, I expected her to fall flat in such a dynamic role but she actually pulls it off convincingly.

The melancholy character of Jaques was played by Kevin Klein and he did a great job of it but the character wasn’t integral to this version of the story.  Like I said earlier, this play just seems too much like other plays that I am more familiar with.  The manipulation of relationships was “Much Ado About Nothing”, the cross-dressing woman falling in love with her companion was “Twelfth Night” and Jaques was Falstaff without the mirth.

The Epiloge was given by Rosalind as she breaks the fourth wall but stays in character.  She recites the epilogue while walking the backlot to her trailer.  We see camera/sound techs, we see modern cars all while she’s spouting Shakespearian text.  I thought it was kind of cool.

The movie was good, the play was never one of my favorites but this did give me some exposure to some actors that I never thought much of and it also gave me a new dose of some old favorites.

6 of 11 Skulls