2.5/4  Twelfth Night Quick Review
Shakespeare adaptation that doesn't have enough energy or spirit, and Imogen Stubbs is never believable as a man. Final Grade: C+

1/5 A very depressing version of a wonderful comedy!
  by Matthew Overturf (Arkansas)
I usually enjoy Kenneth Branagh's versions of the Bard, but I truly believe he missed the mark on this one. So many hilarious moments were either passed over, or made overwhelmingly depressing! For instance, the entire scene with Malvolio in the prison is supposed to be a continuation of the joke. For some reason, Feste discovers a conscience and makes everyone feel bad about what they have done. That is not how it should be done!! Even the comical fight scene between Sir Andrew and Cesario is just awful and degenerates into sadness. The end is horrible!! This is supposed to be the great revealing, everything should end happily. Unfortunately, again it is extremely depressing. Do not waste your time on this. I will be looking for a much better version for my high school classes.

1/5 A dull 12th Night???? Why?!
  by Paul E. Doniger
Why one expects so much from Kenneth Branagh I do not understand. This production of Shakespeare's most sparklingly warm and lovely comedy is worse than a disappointment. It's a mystery. This great play always seemed to be one that could overcome even the most incompetent of directors as long as the actors are at least competent. However, Branagh manages to take the beautiful, energetic dialogue and turn it into an exercise in boredom. The one positive thing about Branagh's directing is that at least we are not also subjected to his highly over-reated acting, since he uncharacteristically does not actually play a role in this production.

The speeches are extraordinarily slow and labored by almost everyone (the Malvolio of Richard Briers and the Feste of Anton Lester being the exceptions). Frances Barber's Viola in no way even begins to appear, sound, or behave "boyish" in the Cesario scenes, and she also looks far too mature for the role. The young men (Orsino & Sebastian) may be handsome in appearance, but their line readings are dull, stale, flat, and unprofitable throughout. Sir Toby, Fabian, and Maria seem to be wishing that they were somewhere else. Finally, the music, as a previous reviewer has noted, is completely out of place and out of time. The depths of despair in this wintry production (of what usually is a joyous springtime festival) make it feel as though Branagh thought he was directing Maxim Gorky's _Twelfth Night_ instead of Shakespeare's.

This is also the longest _Twelfth Night_ on video/DVD. The Trevor Nunn movie, with its sometimes questionable cuts, choices, and scene rearrangements, is far superior (thanks in large measure to the near perfect Viola of Imogen Stubbs) and perhaps the best choice on DVD; even the quite flawed BBC version from the early 1980s (late 1970s?), with the delightful (although also much too feminine for Cesario) Felicity Kendal, is a far better choice.

Save your pennies; read the play aloud with your friends instead!

2/5 Twelfth Night a Disappointment
  by P. Owens (North Carolina)
I tried this because Kenneth Branaugh's name was connected and I find his Shakespeare enjoyable and extremely useful in the classroom. Avoid this. It is BORING. I'll stick with the Trevor Nunn production which is appreciated by my students the way Shakespeare should be appreciated. The only plus to this version it is set on one stage.

5/5 Outstanding Production
  by R. Weber (North Carolina)
This is where the Branagh/Shakespeare revelation began on screen. This is an excellent, wistful, adaptation of Twelfth Night/What You Will. Although it is a staged TV production, it is not a video of a staged play. A later version of Twelfth Night by Trevor Nunn uses bigger name actors and location filming, but this DVD showcases the wonderful language and verbal play of the text. Not only that, there are some beautiful musical passages used. Enjoyable from the first viewing, subsequent screenings yield even deeper understanding and pleasure from this mature comedy from the Bard.

4/5 An enchanting diversion
  by Allan M. Lees (Novato, CA USA)
Twelfth Night is one of the Comedies, meaning a light piece intended to divert and amuse. The premise is simple enough: near-identical siblings, a youth and a maiden of noble birth, are shipwrecked and thanks to the actions of benign protectors end up unbeknownst to each other in the same foreign country Illyria, each thinking the other drowned.

Viola, the maiden, casting off her "woman's weeds" takes the guise of a young man and enters into service of the Count Orsino, who is attempting to woo his love-object the fair Olivia. Viola, in her guise as Cesario, is dispatched to press Orsino's cause. Instead, Olivia falls in love with Viola/Cesario while Viola/Cesario falls in love with her master Orsino. Meanwhile Sebastian, Viola's brother, slowly makes his way towards the love-triangle that is developing in his absence. A classic comedy of mistaken identity, in other words, with a plot-line that could be leaden and obvious to a fault.

But this play charms instead of grates because the comedic parts are so wonderfully portrayed. The jester Feste is perfect and Richard Briars gives a once-in-a-lifetime performance as the egregious Malvolio and accomplishes a minor miracle in causing us to feel real sympathy for him in the last act.

Of course this is old-world drama and anyone who expects the twin leads of Viola and Sebastian to resemble each other as near-identical will be grievously disappointed. This is, after all, theatre and entertainment. It was written to be performed in the afternoon to an audience rapt with the consumption of hot pies and with their attention straying to games of cards and dice. We are a long way from Hollywood here. So a viewer unaccustomed to Shakespeare or Ben Johnson or Kitt or Webster is likely to be unimpressed. Yet listen a moment to the words, to the lyric beauty that even after four hundred years can stir the soul, and suddenly it doesn't seem so silly that Olivia falls under the spell of Cesario's golden tongue. Set aside the desire for fast-paced action scenes and in a trice Malvolio's wretched loneliness and sense of grievance leaps to the fore and we acknowledge that his punishment exceeded his offence. In other words, allow yourself to experience this play as it was meant to be experienced, and the result is magical.

While not all the cast quits itself majestically, all performances are worthy and the over-arching effect is totally satisfying. We are not here for the sturm und drang of Othello or Hamlet or Macbeth; we are here for gentle sorrow and love requited in the end. Shakespeare takes a flimsy plot device and has crafted it into a vehicle for the tender exploration of loneliness, of personal isolation, and of redemption through love. For what it is, it is perfectly done and to be treasured like a fine old wine.