dimpap404

Very enjoyable comedy with the brilliant de Funes at the top of his career supported by a very competent cast and excellent direction. The scipt is deceivably simple with slapstick and situation comedy and so on, but has deeper cultural roots in Fench- European theater tradition. I laughed a lot.

Being a life-long lover of the Bard and an admiret of Branagh's work, I was looking forward to seeing this film but sadly, I was disappointed. Most parts like the music and photo were good, some scenes were excellent but the film as a whole failed to engage. Part of the problem I think were Branagh's artistic choices like his prosthetic nose and whig, but mostly his choice of the main actors, great and famous as they are, but by now definitely geriatric actors, decades older than the the persons they played. Dame Judy Dench looked like she might be Shakespere's mother or even grandmother. Sir Ian McKellen was about 20 years older than Southampton would have been in the fictional meeting with Will in1613. McKellen did his part brilliantly but he looked very old and tired. The blond whig was silly. The protofeminism in the film seemed somewhat anacronistic. Such details were off putting nad distracting. Pity.