This odd production of Shakespeare's 2nd-rate comedy is not bad with its admixture of various old standard song-and-dance numbers from American musical comedies by Kern, the Gershwins and Irving Berlin as well as real and not so real newsreel clips from World War 2. That it doesn't really make sense is balanced by the fact that it has the courage of its anachronisms and doesn't try to do so.
The song-and-dance numbers are mostly only tenuously connected to the action of the play but this is part of the film's charm. Though I wonder why Nathan Lane is channeling Ethel Merman in the song from Berlin's "Annie Get your Gun", "There's no Business Like Show Business" but, never mind, it works well enough.
I only feel that after a while I have gotten the joke and wish it would soon end.
And while only Kenneth Branagh is really a Shakespearean actor, the others do well enough in this artificial atmosphere though the women's forced merriment gets to be a trial. And Miss Silverstone's acting is generally adequate until the mood suddenly darkens towards the end and then she's not up to it at all.
The DVD extra with the actors' comments is quite helpful and, yes, they prerecorded their songs (you can watch them doing it here.) and lip-synching to their own voices afterwards.
The song-and-dance numbers are mostly only tenuously connected to the action of the play but this is part of the film's charm. Though I wonder why Nathan Lane is channeling Ethel Merman in the song from Berlin's "Annie Get your Gun", "There's no Business Like Show Business" but, never mind, it works well enough.
I only feel that after a while I have gotten the joke and wish it would soon end.
And while only Kenneth Branagh is really a Shakespearean actor, the others do well enough in this artificial atmosphere though the women's forced merriment gets to be a trial. And Miss Silverstone's acting is generally adequate until the mood suddenly darkens towards the end and then she's not up to it at all.
The DVD extra with the actors' comments is quite helpful and, yes, they prerecorded their songs (you can watch them doing it here.) and lip-synching to their own voices afterwards.