Because of Nothing, the Confusion is Great (paghmo' tIn mIs)

So I got around to seeing Much Ado About Nothing. Not my usual fare, but with Joss Whedon directing and the cast including Amy Acker, Nathan Fillion, Alexis Denisof, Tom Lenk, Agent Coulson (I should know his real name and I can't be bothered doing an IMDB search), Toufer (Franz something, another IMDB search I should do), Garkunkel (or Oates), and more, I was prepared to try something out of my regular fare. Overall, I enjoyed the film and thought it was well done.

I quite liked the way Whedon mixed the old language of the play with modern visual cues. The lords and princes are identified by suits, official photographers and bodyguards with earpieces talking into their wrists, the watch are cops with CSI sunglasses, and so on.

In terms of the language, they appear to have stuck pretty well to the original play (I say appear because I've not really read the original play. I own a copy but it's a dual language copy and when I attempted to read it I was more focused on the non-English version), which apart from a few instances where Beatrice and Benedick were verbally sparring where it got a bit too quick, was easy to understand.

The casting seemed very much to have been Joss Whedon calling up people he's liked working with before, as nearly all the cast have been involved in at least one Whedon production before this. A random thought I had during the film was what sort of character Amy Acker would have had if she'd appeared on Firefly, but I think Firefly was over before Acker entered the Whedonsphere. 

Amy Acker and Alexis Denisof both put in great performances, especially when playing off each other.

The only bit that I didn't get fully behind was the plot, which seemed to be highly contrived and not make much sense at all, but I'm sure it worked better with the crowds of Shakespeare's time, and the fact that it's being remade says it still has some resonance.

Thank you to the various people who recommended it to me, as otherwise it may have gone onto the I'll watch it someday list rather than the I've seen and enjoyed it list it now sits in.