Saw it at the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood this afternoon.
Absolutely phenomenal film. Whedon captures the comedy beautifully, staging the funnier scenes ala Preston Sturges (The Lady Eve, Sullivan's Travels) with lots of physical comedy and screwball antics. It's not all fun and games of course and as usual Joss does a great job of counterpoint when staging the more intense scenes of the play against the comedy, it's funny but it's also very dark when it needs to be. It's also quite sexy!
His approach to the dialogue is to have his actors perform it in the same way that he handled dialogue in Buffy or Firefly or whatever, using delivery and gestures to sell the lines. You forget that you are listening to Shakespeare, it just becomes friends talking to each other and feels completely natural and real.
The entire cast does a great job with the material, but man, Amy Acker is a revelation here, her performance is so beautifully nuanced I hope she gets a best actress nod for it, well deserved.
The combination of printing the film in B&W, filming all on real locations (Whedon's house) and using primarily natural lighting throughout gives the film a documentary feel and adds to the realism and overall "cool" tone. Joss also did the minimalist but highly effective score.
It opens nationwide on June 21st, go see it!
Subject: Much Ado About Nothing 
Sat Jun 08, 2013 2:14 am
