Much Ado About Nothing

If nothing quite matches the teeming, joyful, acrobatic opening high in the hills of Tuscany, there's much to commend in Branagh's pruned, international version of Shakespeare's troubling comedy. Washington is the well-meaning Duke to Reeves' splendidly imperious John the bastard, while Keaton and Elton are a suitably clueless Dogberry and Verges. Branagh and Thompson, as Beatrice and Benedick, seem on the whole happier with the romance than the comedy - but do a fair job with some of the best verbal jousting in the language.