Much Ado About Nothing

Shakespeare's back and Branagh's got him. Again.

And Kenneth Branagh s production of Much Ado About Nothing is a good, solid piece of work. Too often, people behave as if Shakespeare requires a Ph.D. to be understood. Actually, Old Willy frequently pitched his plays to the rubes in the back bleachers. In his direction of the film, Branagh is reaching for the same mass audience.

The Anglo-American cast of Much Ado is part of that pitch. While Branagh cast many of his chums from the Royal Shakespeare Company in the film, he also sprinkled it with an odd assortment of Yanks. In turn, the Brits have toned down their accents, and the dialogue sounds like a mellow, mid-Atlantic symphony.

The performances are as well-executed as the film itself. As Benedick and Beatrice, Shakespeare's flirtatiously quarrelsome lovers, Branagh and Emma Thompson play off each other with the witty agility of a seasoned couple (which, of course, they are). But it's Thompson who carries the real spark of the film, successfully providing her heroine with fierce intelligence and suppressed passion.

Keanu Reeves' performance, however, is a notable exception to those of his colleagues. As the conniving Don John, Reeves conveys a spooky blank look — as if he is constantly searching for the cue cards.

Much Ado About Nothing is a well made film, but Branagh can't quite overcome the long-standing suspicion that it's minor Shakespeare. The play itself often reads like a mere diversion — a quick comedic study tossed off in a rush. A bit of sex, a little slapstick and a fast resolution.

Despite Branagh's reputation as the wunderkind of British cinema, he is actually a visually weak filmmaker. And, he is often incapable of exploring the material for anything more than the obvious.

Several years ago, when he directed Henry V, he coasted along on the play's grand, epic structure. When he tries to deal with the scaled-down subtleties of Much Ado, his ambitions shrink as well.

Both the strengths and weaknesses of Branagh's film making lie in his derivative approach. Henry V worked, in part, because Branagh found a good model in Orson Welles' Falstaff. In fact, Henry was essentially a sequel to Welles' more complex and audacious masterpiece. With Much Ado About Nothing, Branagh borrows from the populist school of Franco Zeffirelli.

Specifically, Branagh copies Zeffirelli's production of The Taming of the Shrew. But where Zeffirelli effectively pushed the material to extremes, which resulted in a sharp mix of Italian earthiness and farce, Branagh doesn't push far enough in any direction. The closest Much Ado comes to challenging the material is Michael Keaton's truly bizarre performance as Dogberry — but it stems from the actor's sense of high energy.

Still, Shakespeare is Shakespeare, and Much Ado About Nothing has a good feel for the bard's more biting barbs about men, women and the contrariness of love.

Multiplicity

Some men lead lives of quiet desperation. But Doug Kinney(Michael Keaton) is simply desperate. So desperate that he would do anything to try and balance the constant friction that exists between his job and the demands of his family. The situation is so extreme that he would have to be at least two people to do everything in one day. Hey, isn't there some scientific thing called cloning?

It sounds like a reasonably good premise. Someday, it might even make for a funny movie. But for now, viewers are stuck with Multiplicity, the film that conclusively proves that more is not necessarily merrier.

The plot of Multiplicity sounds like a bad math test. Doug is a building contractor whose job demands eighteen hours, six days a week. His two kids require another eighteen hours, seven days a week. Add in his wife Laura (Andie MacDowell) with a set of needs that easily tally up to thirty-six hours a day, eight days a week. Not surprisingly, Doug is incapable of successfully fulfilling any one's expectations.

So he decides to change the arithmetic through a fast round of multiplication. Thanks to a crackpot scientist (Harris Yulin) who can create clones with the ease of a baker cutting cookies, Doug has himself duplicated. Suddenly, he is a total workaholic (Doug 2) who does all of the housework (Doug 3) while still finding time for a leisurely session on the golf course (Doug 1). Once again, division proves to be the miracle worker of mathematics.

But just think of the many madcap situation that might ensue. If you can think of any, then you are already several steps ahead of the screenwriters. Multiplicity goes blank with the whole idea as the movie runs aground with Doug's protracted mid-life crisis. While everyone else does all his work, the original Doug spends his time sneaking off to basketball games and fretting about the prospect of his clones having a go at the wife.

What Doug should be worried about is the fact that his copies are almost as boring as their master. Doug 2 is an aggressive lout who spends his time firing people and cruising the secretarial pool. Doug 3 is a prissy fussbudget who devotes entire evenings to wrapping leftovers. When the inevitable Doug 4 arrives, he turns out to be a mentally stunted slob who behaves like a demented five year-old. This guy doesn't need therapy. He needs a whole new identity.

Keaton is a talented actor and the few genuine amusing moments in Multiplicity are tributes to his skill at milking the material. But Keaton's unusual screen persona is due to the often unpredictable and edgy range that he can project into a character. He can shift his face from child-like innocence to dark and dangerous impulses with just a single flick of his eyebrows. However, he doesn't play one-dimensional caricatures worth a lick and all of his Dougs suffer as a result.

The rest of the cast is shoved into the background. MacDowell alternates between domestic shrillness and sexual panting. As Doug's boss, Richard Masur lets his loud clothes do the talking. John deLancie does an easy day's work as the company's chief toady who is after Doug's job.

The one good gag in Multiplicity is the name of the condo that Doug is building. Unfortunately, Vista de Nada also sums up the movie.