I got hold of the DVD quite some time ago, based on the very good reviews I'd read, but failed to really get into the film on a first viewing. I'd watched some five minutes or so only, and it somehow didn't seem to work for me. Possibly this was due to the fact that it's so very different from the Branagh version which I generally consider my favourite Shakespeare on film of all time (first viewed in the cinema back in the 1990s). But on Sunday Whedon's version worked for me and, if anything, I enjoyed it all the more for the differences from the Branagh version. The subdued black and white photography had a different kind of glamour than the earlier Italian sun-kissed version and the low-key naturalistic speaking of the verse seemed completely fitting for a movie largely shot indoors (in Whedon's own house, I believe.) I'd also consider Whedon's cast as more uniformly strong than Branagh's and more of an ensemble than a series of star turns. Whilst Amy Acker and Alexis Denisof are a satisfying Beatrice and Benedick they by no means steal the show, and I really enjoyed Hero (Jillian Morgese, I think - few lines, but great presence, really inhabiting the character) and Claudio (Fran Kranz - managing to make a potentially irritating character genuinely sympathetic and likable.)
One thing I'm noticing about myself as an audience for Shakespeare in my more mature years is that whilst I enjoy the real fireworks of the poetry once he turns it on, I'm quite happy with the more cliched stuff when he's just chugging along. That's partly why I was okay with the Hero/Claudio subplot, I suppose, apart from the excellent performances, whereas at one time, as a callow youth, I would have dismissed it as stale stuff. Perhaps I'm going backwards, but if that increases my enjoyment it's fine by me.
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