This movie seemed interesting from the start. The dialect is cute and all, but it was very difficult to follow. I was hoping that thou hath created Subtitles, in English. Alas, I was not able to complete this journey. I bet if I could follow what was going on with modern dialect I could much better follow the story. I wish to write this review yet IMDb wants me to write yet more lines. I don't know how much more I can write about the film. The rating is lower because it was very hard to follow despite me being a native English speaker. If I were to be able to watch the more, I could write more, but alas I am not able to write more because I couldn't watch the movie more because I wasn't able to follow the movie so I couldn't write any more about a movie that I wasn't able to watch all the way through.

Well It lives up to it's title I guess. There is in fact much ado about nothing. It's an adaptation of a Shakespeare play, so I'm not going to complain about things like characters being overly cheesy, characters making rather rash and stupid decisions, and characters monologuing to themselves. That being said, lets talk about the movie. It's just okay, nothing super amazing for anyone who doesn't love Shakespeare. The relationship and betrayal plot lines didn't do that much for me. The only thing really making this worth watching is the writing. Its written in old English and it never ceased to amaze me that someone had to write that. But yeah, besides that not really worth watching and I can't really recommend it.

Normally, when I watch a film done in the Shakespearean prose, even a film that turns out to be a full-bloodied masterpiece like Orson Welles' Othello or Kenneth Branaugh's Hamlet, there is a sense that the language doesn't sound ALL immediate. It's all performed well and with enough energy and dramatic guff, but I don't get a modern sensibility from the actors.Joss Whedon, for the first time that I could see in a *good* way (step aside, Baz Lurhmann with your '+' film), got performances that spoke on film the Bard's words and yet ALSO provided, at least for me, a view into how to speak such words in a way that feels immediate, real, and not drawn out from the past but just as *there* in the sense of character interactions, timing and comic/dramatic sensibility as on Buffy or Angel or anything else Whedon does.It's really, I think, about how he directs the actors, and it's what counts here when it's a micro-budget film (Whedon shot it as his "20th anniversary present" to himself, no, really, following his wrap on shooting The Avengers in 2011), and all that's there is the actors in a house and it's black and white footage. And Whedon gets this story down so convincingly because his cast is always on top of what needs to be said, what's there in-between in physical actions (as Alexis Denisof tries to listen in any way he can to romance talk about another 'lady' and his interest, played by the sweetheart Amy Acker).And again, Nathan Fillion, how you fill in a supporting role! The Dogberry stuff is the "B"-plot-line, but it adds so much comedic punch to the narrative,which is all based on behavior and nuance by the way, and attitudes towards love, commitment, and how we treat one another as ruthless or kind or sometimes (trying) to do both in the same scene. Sound like classic Whedon, with the whole ensemble and sly romantic entanglements with the touch of social satire? You bet. It was my pick for Sleeper of the summer 2013.

Joss Whedon's Santa Monica hacienda, with its terraces, staircases and multiple levels, makes a great Shakespearean theater, and why wouldn't a Sicilian duke have a swimming pool? This version stands tall besides Branagh's film from '93; as far as the line readings go, seems like it's better to have a cast that's on pretty much the same level of competency than one, like Branagh's, that ranges from the stellar (Emma T) to the abysmal (Keanu). (That said, the actors who seem most comfortable with the text, playing the small parts of the friar and the sexton, remind us of how much we're missing.) The problems that modern viewers are likely to have with the play—Dogberry's stupid puns aren't the least bit funny and Claudio's so easily tricked into thinking that his beloved's been seduced by the evil Don John's monkey boy—didn't seem to loom so large in this breezy, brisk performance. Enjoyed the shtick with the cellphones, plastic handcuffs and of course the snorkel. Those craving authenticity might want to take a look at the Globe Stage version (also 2012), with Eve Best of "Nurse Jackie" fame as Beatrice; supposed to be available from Amazon.