SIFF 2013 Notebook: Much Ado About Nothing

Joss Whedon’s tipsy iambic house party delights with jazzy energy and wit. Amy Acker gives us a brilliant, sharp-tongued, eye-rolling Beatrice. Clark Gregg is by turns lordly, avuncular, scary, and rueful. Reed Diamond does a merry regal turn. Nathan Fillion’s plays Dogberry as a pastiche of bad cop shows. Alex Denisoff is, alas, the film’s weak point, a half-hearted, clowning Bennedick. Whedon would have done better to cast Alan Tudyk as the male lead: a Whedon regular with the wit, energy, dramatic range, and comic chops to make the man Beatrice loves to hate seem worth the trouble.