Much Ado About Nothing

Directed by Joss Whedon

(PG-13)

****

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I can sense your distrust already, Shakespeare lovers, said David Edelstein in New York magazine. That the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer has filmed the Bard’s well-traveled comedy in his L.A. mansion with actors from commercial television is undoubtedly generating much ado in your circles. But “a director looking over his shoulder for frowning dramaturges” might never have been able to accomplish what Joss Whedon has here, because it’s “hard to imagine” a more assured screen adaptation. The “prickly banter” of would-be lovers Benedick and Beatrice gives this story its snap, and Alexis Denisof and Amy Acker handle it beautifully, said Catherine Shoard in The Guardian (U.K.). Whedon meanwhile shows “a keen ear for comedy, a deft hand for slapstick, and an eagerness to use it.” Let’s hope that smart labors of love like this one have a future, said Linda Holmes in NPR.org. It will generate only the smallest fraction of the money made by Whedon’s last feature—Marvel’s The Avengers—but it’s the kind of project that reminds us all that “delight is an end in itself.”