Melodramatic ham that he is,
Kenneth Branagh
seldom lets a minute go by in his screen adaptations of Shakespeare without some kind of musical accompaniment.
Patrick Doyle
is a shameless enabler for
Branagh
's music addiction, dealing out 24 tracks worth of sticky sweet orchestrations to satisfy the director's jones.
Much Ado About Nothing
was
's second Shakespeare film, and at the time of its release his ebullient directorial style seemed radiant and charming. The film was widely regarded as a magnificently robust Hollywood popularization of one of the Bard's cheekiest comedies. But
's unwinking earnestness began to wear thin in later efforts like
Hamlet
and
Love's Labours Lost
, making
Much Ado
seem somewhat light weight in retrospect.
Doyle
's contribution is nevertheless suitably sweeping and frothy, even if it does borrow rather too liberally from his previous (and superior) compositions for
Henry V
. As usual,
's greatest work comes in
classical
vocal tracks like the dirge-like choral passage
"Pardon Goddess of the Night"
and the winsome musical setting for Shakespeare's poem
"Sigh No More Ladies,"
which receives a beautiful reading in the opening credits by the incomparable
Emma Thompson
. These help to compensate for the egregiously swollen romantic pieces that underscore ridiculous shots of a lovestruck
splashing around in Venetian fountains. ~ Evan Cater