YMMV / Much Ado About Nothing (2012)

• Awesome Music: "Sigh No More."
• Harsher in Hindsight: Joss Whedon not cutting Claudio's infamous "ethiope line" is less funny now that Ray Fisher has accused Whedon of onset abuse involving racism.
• Tear Jerker:
  • Go on. Watch Amy Acker shatter under the weight of her own grief and try not to feel your heart breaking along with hers.
  • Ditto for Jillian Morgese in Hero's grief and devastation after her public humiliation, and especially in the scene where Leonato rails against her.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: While we're not meant to agree with Claudio's racist line, this Cringe Comedy moment stands in the way of his redemption. Even worse is that it's set in the modern day, and nobody but Benedick seems to react negatively.
• Values Dissonance:
  • Several in moving Shakespeare to the modern day, most notably the plot-driving point of the scandal of a lady not being a virgin on her wedding night (saved in the particular by the extreme of her cheating the night before the wedding). See also Lampshade Hanging above. Word of God is that the war the men are returned from is a Mafia war, which...explains a lot of the values dissonance, to put it mildly.
  • Joss Whedon chose not to excise Claudio's line "I'll hold my mind, were she an Ethiope" and instead draw humor from it by having a black woman stand right behind Claudio giving a Death Glare while Benedick watches on with a handless Face Palm.
• Why Would Anyone Take Him Back?: Claudio's unsavoury lines are not trimmed. In his commentary, Joss Whedon notes the difficulty of trying to sell the romance in this day and age, and points out that he tried to soften the blow by including a shot of Hero watching the funeral procession, and seeing how torn up he is.

---