Shot over just twelve days at Joss Whedon’s own home, Shakespeare’s classic comedy of sparring lovers Beatrice and Benedick (and sappy lovers Claudio and Hero) is given a modern twist in this film that is dark, sexy and frequently absurd.

Full disclosure: I usually don’t enjoy Shakespeare and even though I do enjoy Joss Whedon, I’m certainly no aficionado. Yet, I absolutely loved this film. It’s refreshing and charming, stripped back to the basics, and every line of dialogue is a delight. The film is black and white, and the cinematography by Jay Hunter is smooth and silky. Whedon reportedly wanted to capture the same pleasurable effect he felt during his own home readings of Shakespeare, putting the emphasis firmly on the playful language of the original text – and this was absolutely the case for me. I completely relaxed watching this film; there’s a ‘home video’ element to the whole thing that is wholly delicious. In many ways the romantic comedy formula of Much Ado has not changed to this day: watching smart, sensible people turn into fools for love.

Amy Acker as Beatrice and Alexis Denisof as Benedick are both stand-outs and their on-screen chemistry is so much fun to watch, but really, every performance was wonderful. Post-film I read that there was plenty of on-set improvisations. Some of these lovely, funny impromptu moments include the evil Don John (Sean Maher) grabbing himself a cupcake just moments after ruining a wedding and breaking the hearts of all present, or Benedick oh-so-casually doing push-ups in Beatrice’s presence.

Watching these moments unfold I felt genuinely joyful. Whedon’s clear-as-water, no-frills take on Shakespeare has helped me to understand, finally, what everyone’s been raving about: apparently Shakespeare does amazing things with language.

Bronte Coates