SOURCE: Scott, A. O. “What Say You, My Lords? You'd Rather Charleston?” New York Times (9 June 2000): E12.

In the following review, Scott characterizes Kenneth Branagh's film version of Love's Labour's Lost as entertaining but not particularly impressive.

For every man with his affects is born. Not by might mast'red but by special grace. 

These lines are spoken by Berowne, a witty courtier played by Kenneth Branagh, who also directed Love's Labour's Lost, a whimsical, affected adaptation of Shakespeare's most forgettable early comedy. There is a great deal of dancing in the movie, which invokes the name of Stanley Donen and boasts a score packed with Broadway standards from Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin and the Gershwin brothers, but not much special grace.

Mr. Branagh has assembled a troupe of game, eager young stars, including Matthew Lillard, the gangly creepshow hearthrob from the Scream pictures, and Alicia Silverstone, the Bel...