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Love's Labour's Lost
Release Date: March 2000
Distributor: Pathe
Certificate: U
Starring: Kenneth Branagh, Alessandro Nivola, Alicia Silverstone, Natascha McElhone, Matthew Lillard, Adrian Lester, Timothy Spall, Emily Mortimer
Director: Kenneth Branagh
Running Time: 93 mins
Shakespeare again

Kenneth Branagh makes his recent Guilgud award all the more relevant with yet another adaptation of a Shakespeare play.

'Love's Labour's Lost' takes a different slant from his previous traditional outings by using the same technique as the Leo DiCaprio version of Romeo and Juliet, and setting the film in modern times - well almost. Branagh has set this latest excursion into the bard's world as a 1930's Hollywood musical complete with classic songs of the time from Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, George Gershwin and Jerome Kern, which are all sung by the cast.
As well as Branagh in the role of Berowne, he has managed again to bring together an International cast including Alicia Silverstone ('Clueless', 'Blast from the Past', 'Batman and Robin') as the Princess of France, Allessandro Nivola ('Face Off','Best Laid Plans'), Natasha McElhone ('The Truman Show', 'Ronin'), Adrian Lester ('Primary Colours'), Matthew Lillard ('Scream'), Emily Mortimer ('Elizabeth', 'Notting Hill'), Nathan Lane ('Mousehunt', 'The Birdcage'), Timothy Spall ('Hamlet', 'Secrets and Lies'), Carmen Ejogo ('I Want You') and Italian Newcomer Stefania Rocca ('The Talented Mr.Ripley').
The story is a bitter-sweet comedy about love and romance in which four well intentioned, but misguided young men discover the impossibility of denying the power of true love. Taking the play into the twentieth century s a bold move, especially by not making it contemporary, but there are enough references in the original play to make the idea of it as a musical one that works. For instance in one sequence where the guys all have written secret love poems, Branagh takes all the poems out and substitutes just one song 'I've got a crush on you'
Full marks for inventiveness.

Clayton Everett