361. My top five Shakespeare plays: number 5
As you all know, I just looooove me some lists. I guess it’s from all the repeated viewings of High Fidelity my freshman year. Well, now that 365 Days of Shakespeare is winding to a close (holy crow, I actually retroactively achieved this since I’m technically posting this in late October even though I changed the date to be September so it looks like I was totally on top of things? Go me and my run-on sentences!), I thought it would be good for me to talk about the plays I personally consider to be Shakespeare’s five best. So here we go, beginning with number five!
NUMBER 5: Much Ado About Nothing
This play is so utterly charming right from the get-go that it is my go-to for depressing, rainy days. It cheers me up better than a hot cup of cider, and that’s saying something, because I love me some cider. What’s nice about this play is that is also comes with a pretty universally loved film, so I don’t feel like I’m cheating when I watch it instead of reading it. Keanu aside, it is a really well-cast and hilarious movie. Though the play takes an insanely dark turn – as most of Shakespeare’s comedies are wont to do – Dogberry is always there at the ready to lighten the mood and crack us up with his malapropisms (or, as I think they ought to be called, Mistress Quicklyisms, but it doesn’t seem to want to catch on). For justice towards bad guys, romance, comedy, and a happily ever after, the number five spot goes to Much Ado About Nothing.
Love it! Mistress Q. did get there a fair bit earlier didn’t she – along with Dogberry, et al.
Totally agree with you re. Keanu – such a disappointment after My Own Private Idaho. Still, nice massage scene!
Disagree with what you have written elsewhere, though, about Michael Keaton as Dogberry. While I rate him highly in the usual way of things, I recall him as often being incomprehensible in this: there were great physical gags, but the wit of the words, with all those misuses, was rather lost. A similar thing happened – despite the brilliance of the film over all – in Baz Luhrman’s Romeo & Juliet, with Mercutio: fantastic idea to link the Queen Mab speech to drugs, but if you didn’t know the speech you wouldn’t have a clue what he was on about, let alone the greatness of the idea.
Above all here, though, I loved your “Go me and my run-on sentences!” – like draws like.
discoverfineacting
January 5, 2011 at 6:06 PM