| As You Like It | |
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 Film poster | |
| Directed by | Kenneth Branagh |
| Screenplay by | Kenneth Branagh |
| Based on | As You Like It byWilliam Shakespeare |
| Produced by | Kenneth Branagh Judy Hofflund Simon Moseley |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Roger Lanser |
| Edited by | Neil Farrell |
| Music by | Patrick Doyle |
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Running time | 127 minutes |
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| Language | English |
| Box office | $563,162[1] |
As You Like It is a 2006romance film written and directed byKenneth Branagh, and based onWilliam Shakespeare'splay of the same name. The film starsRomola Garai,Bryce Dallas Howard,Kevin Kline,Adrian Lester,Janet McTeer,Alfred Molina,David Oyelowo andBrian Blessed in adual role.
The film transferred the play's setting to a late 19th-century European colony in Japan after theMeiji Restoration. Filming took place atShepperton Film Studios and at the never-before-filmed gardens ofWakehurst Place. Produced by The Shakespeare Film Company and financed byHBO Films andBBC Films, it is the fifth Shakespeare adaptation by Branagh, and the only one not to feature Branagh himself in the cast, though he has avocal cameo towards the end of the film.
The film premiered in Italy on 1 September 2006 before being released byPicturehouse in the United States on 21 August 2007 and byLionsgate in the United Kingdom on 21 September 2007. It received mixed reviews.
Although the film was not made in Japan, Branagh sets the play there during the late nineteenth century amongEnglish traders. Branagh portrays Duke Senior's court as a British outpost whose ruler admiresJapanese culture: although most of the inhabitants wear European clothes, Duke Senior and his brother both wearJapanese clothes. Each British lady at the outpost covers her face modestly with a fan, and styles her hair in a Japanese manner. When the banished characters travel to theForest of Arden, both Japanese and western actors portray its inhabitants: Phoebe and William are Japanese, Corin and Audrey are European, while Silvius is a European who wears Japanese clothes.Black British actors play the de Boys brothers, Orlando and Oliver. Orlando fights asumo wrestler.
Branagh invented a prologue in whichninja warriors attack Duke Senior's family as it attends a performance ofKabuki theatre. Branagh's prologue defines exactly the moment that Duke Frederick usurps his brother's kingdom, a moment that Shakespeare's play does not.
The epilogue interrupts the closing credits with Rosalind's speech, as the camera pans to see Rosalind's actor,Bryce Dallas Howard, walking to her dressing trailer on the film's location.
Despite the cultural transposition, Shakespeare's text and the names of his characters remain the same. The film closely follows Shakespeare's plot. Although some critics praised the setting, others found it useless and irrelevant since few of the characters wereJapanese; most of the characters were European, as they were in the original play.[2][3]
The film was released theatrically in Italy on 1 September 2006, in Greece on 7 September 2006, and in the UK on 21 September 2007.[1]
In the United States,HBO began airing the film on TV on the evening of 21 August 2007,[4] but it has never had a true theatrical release in the US, only occasional one-time showings, and most of these US showings took place after the film's television premiere. It is the only one of Branagh's Shakespeare films to be released directly to television instead of to theatres in the US.
The DVD was released in the US on 25 September 2007.
Review aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes reports that 36% of 14 surveyed critics gave it a positive review; the average rating is 4.67/10.[5]Metacritic, rated it 75 out of 100 based on 15 reviews.[6]
Philip French ofThe Observer called it less successful than Branagh's previous Shakespeare adaptations.[7]Peter Bradshaw ofThe Guardian rated it 3/5 stars and wrote that it "deserves a look".[8] Anthony Quinn ofThe Independent rated it 1/5 stars and wrote, "[T]he only way you could make the spiralling absurdities ofAs You Like It work would be to transform it into a fast-paced comedy".[9] Many American critics called the film a "comeback" for Branagh's Shakespeare adaptations, which had reached what many considered a low point withLove's Labour's Lost.[10][11] A negative US reviewer was film criticStanley Kauffmann, who had admired Branagh's film versions ofHenry V,Much Ado About Nothing, andHamlet; he blasted the film, saying that he could barely get through it, and that, by giving it such an unusual setting, Branagh seemed to be trying to "apologize" to the viewing audience for the fact thatAs You Like It was a Shakespeare film.[12] Critic Virginia Heffernan, writing forThe New York Times, was also negative, pointing out that film reduces the role of main character Rosalind: "Mr. Branagh has teased out every manly rivalry and preserved every hey-nonny-nonny of the kooks in the Forest of Arden, but slashed passages of the repartee that defines Rosalind."[13]
Bryce Dallas Howard received aGolden Globe Award nomination for Best Actress in a Made-for-TV Film or Miniseries, but did not win the award.[14]
Kevin Kline won aScreen Actors GuildAward for Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries for his performance as Jaques.[13]
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