| 88 |
New York Daily News David Hinckley
As You Like It is effortlessly entertaining from start to finish. |
| 88 |
USA Today Robert Bianco
Happily, this is a carefully adapted, clearly enunciated As You Like It that retains the beauty of the dialogue while making the meanings clear. |
| 80 |
Wall Street Journal Nancy DeWolf Smith
The production is set among English traders in 19th-century Japan, the timeline of the action is altered, and some beloved examples of word play are no longer in the script. These are small matters, though, compared to the fresh gorgeousness on display and the elements of the story that come into focus here in new and moving ways. |
| 80 |
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Christopher Rawson
There are several good "Twelfth Nights" on film and even more "Midsummer Night's Dreams," but we've never before had a good "As You Like It." This one is welcome. |
| 80 |
San Jose Mercury News Charlie McCollum
Once you get used to the surroundings, it's still the same "As You Like It"--utterly charming and completely winning. |
| 80 |
Variety Brian Lowry
It's a handsomely mounted production that will surely be welcomed by English majors the world over, especially those who would rather watch their homework than read it. |
| 80 |
Time Staff (Not Credited)
It's the strong cast, especially Bryce Dallas Howard as witty, strong-willed Rosalind, that gives this East-West fusion its flavor. |
| 80 |
TV Guide Matt Roush
Director Kenneth Branagh's culture-clash gimmick doesn't get in the way of the play's many intoxicating pleasures. This isn't samurai Shakespeare. |
| 80 |
Hollywood Reporter Barry Garron
Unlike so many adaptations of Shakespeare's plays, this one not only pleases just as it stands but also could inspire a genuine curiosity in many viewers about seeing more of his work. |
| 75 |
San Francisco Chronicle David Wiegand
Most of the performances are very good and some are thrilling, particularly Kline's Jacques, whom he imbues with great world-weary nobility. |
| 70 |
Boston Globe Matthew Gilbert
It's a likable one, marred only by some awkward abridgement. |
| 70 |
Chicago Tribune Maureen Ryan
Branagh directs his actors through the intricacies of Shakespeare’s language with a sure hand, though I sometimes wished during the forest scenes the camera didn’t swoop and swivel quite so much. |
| 70 |
Los Angeles Times Robert Lloyd
Branagh plays up the dark side of this town-in-the-country pastoral--partly by turning exposition into sometimes violent action, partly by trimming the banter--to deepen the romance. (He likes a pratfall, though.) Mostly it works. |
| 60 |
PopMatters Jesse Hicks
The writer-director makes some inspired, insightful cinematic choices. However, the play’s untidiness--it’s one of Shakespeare’s most mischievous--virtually guarantees a final product distinguished by individual performances rather than dramatic consistency. |
| 50 |
The New York Times Virgina Heffernan
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. |
