Product Details

• Actors: Alfred Bell, Richard Briers, Richard Clifford, Carmen Ejogo, Daisy Gough
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Walt Disney Video
• VHS Release Date: December 19, 2000
• Run Time: 93 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (86 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000050IMM
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #255,056 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Having taken Shakespeare at his word on Hamlet (i.e., not cutting a single syllable out of a very long play), Kenneth Branagh selects a more radical approach with Love's Labour's Lost. Here the prolific director-star weeds out much of the play's dialogue and adds songs and dances of a decidedly modern bent. The King of Navarre (Alessandro Nivola, Nicolas Cage's wacko brother in Face/Off) and his three comrades (Branagh, Matthew Lillard, Adrian Lester) take a vow: no womanly distractions while they pursue their studies. Ah, but at that very moment, floating down a magical studio-built river, is the queen of France (Alicia Silverstone), accompanied by three ladies-in-waiting. You do the math. Branagh has set the tale on the eve of the Second World War, which allows for the inclusion of vintage pop songs, including "Cheek to Cheek," "The Way You Look Tonight," and a rousing chorus of "There's No Business Like Show Business," led by--who else?--Nathan Lane. The fact that most of the cast members are not accomplished song-and-dance folk is clearly meant to charm, but the results are spotty at best. Perhaps the most dynamic performer is Natascha McElhone (memorable from Ronin), whose aristocratic bearing and bottomless eyes lend a gravity to the material that is otherwise absent from Branagh's twinkly staging. The play contains some of Shakespeare's loveliest paeans to the language of love, yet Branagh seems to be in a hurry to juice everything up lest the audience lose interest. The labor shows. --Robert Horton

From The New Yorker

Kenneth Branagh, who appears to be working his way through the "Collected Works of Shakespeare," has landed on the most buoyant of the early comedies. This tale of two camps-scholarly guys and demure dolls-meeting in a sylvan setting has been shifted to the nineteen-thirties, where a young king (Alessandro Nivola) goes clubbing with his flannel-suited friends (one of them played by Branagh himself) in order to enjoy a little peace before the onset of war. The historical conceit feels glumly theatrical; the film somehow sinks under the weight of a single idea, and the flat dun lighting is no help. The text has been chopped back and interspersed with musical interludes, during which the actors sing and dance to standards of the period ("Let's Face the Music and Dance," "Fancy Free," and so on). Apart from invoking the charm of the amateurish, there is not much to be said about these moments; at any rate, the ghost of Fred Astaire need have no fear. With Matthew Lillard, Adrian Lester, Natascha McElhone, and Alicia Silverstone, who bravely tackles the Shakespearean pentameter as if she were being asked to eat cactus. Pray you, do not laugh. -Anthony Lane
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

69 of 79 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You will be smiling..., August 7, 2002

By 

Duane S. Montague "Duane" (WA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Love's Labour's Lost (DVD)

I've always loved Branagh. From the moment he made film history with HENRY V (by being the first person since Orson Welles to earn Oscar nominations for both actor and director for the same film) to the light touch he brough to his voice acting in the animated ROAD TO EL DORADO, he has always been a favorite.

But--a film musical based on one of Shakespeare's least-important works? Set in the late 1930's no less? Sounds almost as bad an idea as MOULIN ROUGE. Intrigued, we rented the film from Netflix.

AND FELL IN LOVE. Who cares about the chop-job he did on the "sacred" text? Who cares about the lack of voice in some of his singers? What we watched was a film that made us smile from the opening credits all the way through the final act.
Set aside your preconceptions about what a Shakespeare film should be. Set aside your ideas about what a musical should look like. Enjoy the fun of the film, the glamour of its costuming, its very likable cast. When most movies try to be either extravaganzas or "serious," it's nice to have Mr. Branagh and company give us something that does exactly what it sets out to do: give you a very pleasant entertainment.

33 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Much Ado About a Musical, September 29, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Love's Labour's Lost (DVD)

This film was not widely released, but being an avid Branagh fan I made a trip to go see it, hoping it would become a favorite like his earlier film, Much Ado About Nothing. Alas, this was not the case. Although very cute, I felt like I was watching a high school drama production -mind you, a very good one- but I didn't think it was as up to par as some of his earlier films. The movie definitely does have a feeling of a MGM musical (I think that's what they were going for) and the songs are old favorites by Cole Porter, the Gershwins, and Irving Berlin. Amazingly enough, the actors sing, and quite well. Adrian Lester (previously seen in Primary Colors) has a great voice and was the best dancer in the cast. At times I felt that Alicia Silverstone (The Princess) seemed a little too southern California for Shakespeare, but even she began to grow on me during the movie.

Love's Labour's Lost is one of the Bard's lesser known plays and is very easy to understand. Although I seemed to rip on the movie, I truly did enjoy it. It's a light comedy, and even though it's Shakespeare, it won't have you scambling for your Cliffs Notes. A must see for fans of the Bard and musical lovers alike!

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars LLL 40% Shakespeare, 100% fun, October 13, 2000

By 

Matt Hudson (Cambridge, MA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Love's Labour's Lost (DVD)

Love's Labour's Lost is true to the spirit of Shakespeare's comedy if not the text itself. A delightfully entertaining blend of Gershwin, Porter, and a little bit of the Bard, LLL is highly recommended for musical theatre lovers and anyone willing to consider Renaissance theatre in ways not involving pantaloons and talking to skulls. Nathan Lane is brilliant as Costard, here interpreted as a struggling vaudevillian; Lane lends vocal support (the weakest area of the cast) to the eleven o'clock number "There's No Business Like Show Business." Though the ensemble struggles through some of the musical numbers, the bittersweet "They Can't Take That Away From Me" is all the more moving because of their difficulties. The only number which seems not to fit within the framework of the play/musical/film is also its chief selling point; LLL publicity has focused upon the Fosse-esque "Let's Face the Music and Dance," which stands out in an otherwise charmingly coquettish production as a sexually charged sore thumb. As always, theatricality dominates Branagh's directorial style; look for long, sweeping shots and entire scenes filmed with a single camera and no cut-aways. Though many critics lambasted Branagh for cutting well over half of Shakespeare's text, the musical interludes fulfill much of the function of the missing lines in a way that is a dead-on throwback to an earlier generation of entertainment.