Love's Labours Lost (2000)reviewed by Benn "Where's the Humanity?" Farrell
"Love's Labours Lost," based on the stageplay by William Shakespeare, is about the King of Navarre, played by Alessandro Nivola (Mansfield Park), who public announces him and his three cohorts will spend the next three years concentrating on their studies and swearing of intimate contact with women. Of course, just as he does this, the Queen of France, played by Alicia Silverstone (Clueless), comes into the picture with three hotties in her entourage. Now the men's determinations are tested. Just another love at first sight Bard ramble everyone would rather forget. The greatest strength of the movie is that it IS directed by Kenneth Branagh (Much Ado About Nothing, Dead Again), but is the worst way to renovate the Bard's forgettable comedy. What approach did Branagh take? He decided to adapt this version of L3 as a 1930's movie musical, but using songs from the 1980's and 1990's, much like Baz Lurman did with "Moulin Rouge." That kind of singing material works for the zaniness of "Moulin Rouge," but not for THIS. The performances in the picture were as unforgettable as the movie itself. I had to look up who all was in it, cause I couldn't even remember. That's how poor and uninteresting the acting was. Outside of Branagh himself as usual, I totally forgot Silverstone, Matthew Lillard (Without a Paddle), Natascha McElhone (The Devil's Own) and Nathan Lane (The Birdcage) were even in this utter bore. As sorry as I am to say, the weakest part of the movie was all the musical numbers and specifically the dance numbers, not that the choreography was bad, but the numbers were poorly shot. Branagh adopted this 1930's style of shooting a movie musical and it simply sucked a**. He never should have strayed from the style that made him one of my favorite directors ever. We will see if he gains ground again with his upcoming Shakespeare project "As You Like It," another comedy. I have no clue was Branagh was thinking. He made his first mistake in choosing THIS Bard play to produce into a movie, when other works like "Measure For Measure" are SCREAMING to be put on celluloid or DV for today's age. Overall, I think we should simply refer to "Love's Labours Lost" as 'That Branagh Movie We No Longer Speak Of.' Don't rent this. Branagh is an awesome director and I discourage anyone from renting a movie that shows he has the capability of directing and producing near total crap, especially in his forte--a Shakespeare work Benn - Where's the Humanity?
This was writer/director Kenneth Branagh's worst attempt at a Shakespeare adaptation yet.