As You Like It | Brian Blessed, Richard Clifford

As You Like It | Brian Blessed, Richard Clifford | Take some getting-used-to, but enjoyable in the end.

DVDs:

As You Like It

	As You Like It Brian Blessed, Richard Clifford Hbo Home Video, 2007 average customer review:based on 20 reviews view larger image
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Emmy award winner Kenneth Branagh the man who redefined Shakespeare for a whole new generation with Henry V Much Ado About Nothing and Hamlet brings the Bard's most delightful comedy to sensational life! Rosalind is a young woman living in the court of her uncle when she falls in love with Orlando a young gentleman of the kingdom. When Rosalind is banished she flees into the forest of Arden disguised as a man...only to encounter Orlando who has also been exiled! But can she win his heart disguised as she is? With a setting inspired by 19th century Japan and a star-studded cast including Kevin Kline (Dave A Prairie Home Companion) Bryce Dallas Howard (Spider-Man 3 The Lady In The Water) and Alfred Molina (Spider-Man 2 The Da Vinci Code) AS YOU LIKE IT once again proves that all the world's a stage. Come enjoy!Running Time: 90 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY UPC: 026359401923 Manufacturer No: 94019

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Pure joy

This is my first review at Amazon.com despite being a customer for countless years, but I felt compelled to add my praise to what is undoubtedly a very polarizing version of "As You Like It". Like other reviewers, this is one of my favorite Shakespeare plays, for reasons that were not clear even to me until today. And like others, I was initially taken aback by the Japanese setting and conglomeration of styles and cast (I watched this on an airplane and initially thought I had chosen the wrong movie!). But as it went on, I fell in love with the diversity and power of the production. I had just come back from one of the most difficult trips and days of my life, and the theme that shone through most clearly to me in the movie--finding joy even in adversity--was just what I needed. The thought that this modern production of words penned by someone dead for 400 years uplifted me in a way I can hardly describe. It showed that some things--love, poetry, kindness, humor--can transcend all time and space. By the end I felt held in a place of pure joy, which I think is what has always drawn me to the Forest of Arden. If you are a purist, I can't promise you will love this, but if you want to be truly enraptured by the passion and wit of Shakespeare's words I cannot recommend it more highly.

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Take some getting-used-to, but enjoyable in the end.

Usually, I prefer my opera or play set in traditional production, with the time frame, costumes and cast as plausible and realistic as possible. This movie is therefore a disappointment to me at the very beginning, with the background set to 19 century Japan and the de Boys brothers played by black actors. Director Kenneth Branagh's leisurely pacing does not help.

Strangely, as the story goes on and the action moves away from the Japanese "court" to the forest, I find myself gradually swayed by the excellent performance of every actor in the movie and begin to truly enjoy some of the best dialogues from Shakespeare.

Branagh really does a good job bringing the best out of his talented cast. It is obvious that they are all having a fun time. But the most attention getting has to be the two leading ladies. Bryce Dallas Howard's lips and Romola Garai's eyes are so lively and exuberant, one wonders how anyone can top their performance. Amazingly, the answer to that question is also right there on the screen. Kevin Kline's Jaques is subtle, true and touching at the same time. Just seeing him read "All the world's a stage..." is worth the price of the DVD already.

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I had a hard time deciding what to rate this movie.

I couldn't decide how many stars to give, three or four, I decided on four. My reason, I liked the movie. I laughed in it and enjoyed the romance. I loved the beauty of the music and the scenery. I liked the directing, the play was easy to follow and the words well spoken. Why I almost gave it a three is because it was set in Japan (what was up with that???) and Rosalind when playing a man shouldn't have been so made up. The main reason though was because I asked my dog the same thing another reviewer asked their cat, "Did this tell you why Rosalind had to stay dressed as a man?". In Kenneth's quest to make Shakespeare dearly loved by many he changed too much for those of us who already dearly love Shakespeare. However, Shakespeare is not the Bible and William did his best to make the plays accessible to the masses and so does Kenneth so I only knocked down one star instead of two. It is no Henry V though, the greatest movie of all but worth watching and better than 99% of the drivel that is called entertainment.

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Why Can't a Woman Be More Like a Man?

Can a Shakespeare gender-bending comedy ever work on film? Onstage one buys the convention that a gorgeous woman can convince everyone that she is really a he, but I've yet to see it work on film. Bryce Dallas Howard is talented and gorgeous, but it takes another kind of sex appeal to play Rosalind. It takes a woman who isn't afraid to convincingly play a man! Kate Hepburn could have pulled it off, or a young Emma Thompson, but Ms. Howard never even attempts to walk in a man's shoes. That spoils the fun, the dramatic (and sexual) tension, and the plausibility.

As with every Branagh film, there's much to like: A brilliant opening that sets the stakes high, clear and specific actors' choices, gorgeous art design, yadda yadda, but frankly, I think Branagh was in love with his leading lady.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4

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