Dir. Kenneth Branagh, US/UK, 2006, 127 mins
Cast: David Oyelowo, Adrian Lester, Kevin Kline, Bryce Dallas Howard, Romola Garai
Review by Carol Allen
Director Branagh says he chose Japan as the setting for this production of Shakespeare's play as a result of a trip to Kyoto some seventeen years ago, when the atmosphere of meditative calm that he experienced in a temple garden was just what he felt one should feel in the Forest of Arden.
Branagh is a first class director of Shakespeare and brilliant at adapting the bard to film. Even his thirties musical style Love's Labour's Lost, which wasn't everyone's cup of poetry, had a lot of good points. And the relocating of a Shakespeare play into an unusual setting or time period can often throw new and interesting light on the text. The Japanese setting here however, where most of the characters are played as Victorian English merchant class expatriates, is somewhat baffling, raising more questions than it answers. Why, for example, do Duke Frederick and his associates wear Japanese style armour, when they're English and why are they behaving like feudal lords? If this was how the British merchant class behaved in Japan in the late nineteenth century, they must have been a very odd lot. Again, what is a very English country lass like Audrey (Janet McTeer) or an English shepherd like Corin (Jimmy Yuill) doing in a Japanese forest? And come to tha,t why are there so few Japanese in Japan? While some effort is made to make the lovelorn Sylvius and his scornful beloved Phoebe look a bit Japanese, the actors (Alex Wyndham and Jade Jefferies) very obviously aren't, while their noisy behaviour, particularly that of Sylvius with his feelings hanging out almost American style, is very un-Japanese. And apart from a few extras, the only real oriental actor on view is Chinese actor Paul Chan as William.
However, if you can swallow the unlikeliness of the conceit, the Japanese setting gives an opportunity for really beautiful visuals and there are some very effective sequences, including a terrific opening scene, where Duke Senior (Brian Blessed) and his household are enjoying a performance of a Japanese Noh play, while the Duke's wicked brother Frederick (also Blessed) invades and takes over the establishment, sending Senior into exile in the Forest of Arden. There are also good performances. Kevin Kline is an interesting melancholic Jacques, who appears to be suffering from bi-polar syndrome. Blessed seizes his roles with enthusiasm in a dual performance of very tasty ham. Oyelowo, best known from television's "Spooks", gives the character of Orlando an appealing gauche charm, while Lester as his wicked brother Oliver (wicked brothers abound in this story) actually makes sense out of one of Shakespeare's most difficult and illogical villains. The role of Orlando 's elderly servant Adam (Richard Briers) is satisfyingly expanded to make him much more than a mere cameo. Bryce Howard as Orlando 's love Rosalind is however miscast, being merely competent at best and most unconvincing in her boy's disguise; she wouldn't convince anyone she wasn't a girl, let alone the man who loves her. She's rather mannered, lacks the charisma needed for the role and despite Oyelowo's valiant efforts, there's little chemistry between them. Garai as her best friend Celia tends to act her off the screen with her somewhat goofy, comic approach to her role.
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