Love's Labour's Lost

REVIEW
Branagh may be the reigning screenwriter laureate of Shakespeare's plays, adapting the greater themes and gentler nuances to such works as Hamlet, Henry V and Much Ado about Nothing. In Much Ado and this condensation of Love's Labour's Lost, he especially proves to be an adroit handler of Shakespeare's gentle side, lending natural, playful readings to the trippingly delightful dialogue. But this comedy is saddled with an awkward, labeled conceit, as the story (placed somewhere in the 1930s) is constantly interrupted by musical numbers in the style (and with music) of that era. It's hard to tell whether the numbers would be entertaining in a different film, but here they are so unwelcome as to tarnish the scenes that surround them.