Love's Labour's Lost
Intermedia | Release Date: June 9, 2000 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
35
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 29 Critic Reviews
Positive:
7
Mixed:
11
Negative:
11
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
Boston GlobeJay Carr
Branagh and Love's Labour's Lost all but will themselves into liftoff. They achieve it, and in doing so, they somehow make it right to our pleasure centers with their generous embrace of stardust and pizazz. Read full review
68
Mr. ShowbizKevin Maynard
A trifle of a farce fashioned into a '30s musical that gaily trips as much as it lightly skips, but nonetheless marks a welcome return to form. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
The effect is weird but it, actually, kind of works, illuminating both Shakespeare and the artifice of musicals. Read full review
63
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
The leaden bits do bring the proceedings to a screeching halt too many times, but the costumes are breathtaking, and the details (like color-coordinated martinis) are dazzling. Read full review
63
San Francisco ExaminerG. Allen Johnson
The writer-director has come up with a sumptuous, happy piece of fluff. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
There's not a song I wouldn't hear again with pleasure, or a clip that might not make me smile, but as a whole, it's not much. Like cotton candy, it's better as a concept than as an experience. Read full review
63
New York PostJonathan Foreman
Branagh's attempt to meld Shakespeare's densely verbal early comedy with Broadway show tunes fails, thanks to stunt casting, poor singing and dancing, and the incompatibility of the two art forms. Read full review
60
The New York TimesDana Stevens
Even though Love's Labour's Lost is, in showbiz terms, a turkey stuffed with chestnuts, you wouldn't trade it for a pot of gold. Read full review
58
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
It's never hugely engaging and it's instantly forgettable, but it has a certain goofy charm. Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Too many moments of evident labor weigh this clever production down. To quote the playwright: ''Your wit's too hot, it speeds too fast, 'twill tire.'' Read full review
50
SalonCharles Taylor
Love's Labour's Lost is flawed, but Kenneth Branagh remains our greatest living interpreter of Shakespeare. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
It's all very colorful, but the movie's diverse elements clash as often as they cooperate. Read full review
50
USA TodayMike Clark
Even at its best, the movie plays like a clip reel. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerDesmond Ryan
Has its moments of charm, but it's ultimately a fascinating failure that surely looked better on paper than it does on the screen. Read full review
50
NewsweekDavid Ansen
Labour teeters on the edge of the amateur. Yet it's hard not to root for its moonstruck spirit, or to succumb to the panache of the pastiche. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMarc Caro
Filling his movie with bright colors and giddy energy, Branagh has made a labor of love in which the labor is all too apparent. Read full review
40
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
As if to prove that light romantic comedy can be just as difficult to stage as Shakespeare, Kenneth Branagh fails at both, simultaneously. Read full review
40
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Branagh's take on the play comes right up to the edge of disaster but stubbornly refuses to leap in.
30
Dallas ObserverGregory Weinkauf
Taken as a whole, the movie seems to be searching for a harmony it never really achieves. Read full review
30
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
Branagh has cut, pasted and aggressively abridged Love's Labour's Lost, and piled it high with fancy visuals to make sure we get the drift. Read full review
30
TimeRichard Corliss
But this is a sloppy job, both in little goofs...and in the cast's gung-ho amateurism. It's like Shakespeare done by the "Fame" kids. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
A stink bomb of a movie. Read full review
20
Film.comRobert Horton
These are good people, yet the director has them carrying on like community theater actors playing to the balcony. It isn't fair to them, and it isn't fitting for Shakespeare. Read full review
20
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
It ought to be delightful, but it isn't. Read full review
20
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
Hamming shamelessly as Berowne, Branagh is overseasoned for his part ... he's as desperate as a veteran social director at a Catskills hotel about to fold. Read full review
16
Portland OregonianKim Morgan
An atrocity exhibition from start to finish. Read full review
10
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Misguided version of one of the Bard's best comedies. Read full review
10
Washington PostDesson Thomson
KEN, KEN, KEN, not another Shakespeare, pleeeeeeez. Read full review
10
SlateDavid Edelstein
Unfathomably awful. Read full review
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