Love's Labour's Lost (2000)

A-   Synopsis A king and 3 loyal companions dedicate themselves to rigorous study, with distractions eliminated or minimized, including no women allowed. They soon find that their regiment is not easy to adhere to, especially when a princess from a neighboring kingdom comes to visit along with 3 companions of her own. Review A very risky and unusual take on a Shakespeare play to put it a 1930's musical. Some of the songs they pretty much butcher but most of the songs they do very well. It has humor, heart, and catchy song-and-dance numbers that are sure to be stuck in your head. The play of "Love's Labour's Lost" is very rarely done either on stage or in film, so to just pull out of the woodwork like that, so to speak, and then to put it in a genre that is not exactly pleasing to a wide audience is a very risky move. But the cast is wonderful and perfect, and seeing Kenneth Branagh sing and dance is pretty awesome. And I like the color coding of the outfits. Snapshots:

Directed by: Kenneth Branagh

Cast Alessandro Nivola ... King of Navarre Kenneth Branagh ... Berowne Matthew Lillard ... Longaville Alicia Silverstone ... Princess of France Natascha McElhone ... Rosalind Emily Mortimer ... Katharine Nathan Lane ... Costard Richard Clifford ... Boyet Timothy Spall ... Don Armado Richard Briers ... Sir Nathaniel