By the year 2000, Kenneth Branagh had an admirable film career. Especially noteworthy are the 3 films that he adapted from Shakespeare plays. After his most ambitious, **HAMLET**, he focused on more acting roles and didn't step behind the camera until he produced **LOVES LABOUR'S LOST**. It pains me to say that the resulting film is audacious and sometimes mind-numbingly awkward. This review will personally serve me as I try to understand this effort. This was the first film top be created under the new _SHAKESPEARE FILM COMPANY_. It is likely obscure to most viewers as it survived only through two films, **LOVES LABOURS LOST** and the markedly better **AS YOU LIKE IT**. My guess is that the new film company was going to tackle more frequent Shakespeare stories that were already less popular and not as epic as **HAMLET** or **HENRY V**. And many of those lesser known stories contain stuff that just doesn't translate well to modern audiences. Maybe this new company can approach the stories with a more experimental approach? **LOVES LABOUR'S LOST** is certainly experimental and the results are scattered. Most obviously, Branagh took a 3 and a half hour play and trimmed it to an hour and a half, of which half an hour of it was pre-existing song standards. It seems the objective was to call to mind the musicals of the golden age of Hollywood. But the casting didn't requir…

Browse discussions about “Love's Labour's Lost”

Jump to Reddit for live threads on this title.