Watch a Movie on Fancast: Kenneth Branagh’s “Much Ado About Nothing”

Denzel Washington. Keanu Reeves. Kate Beckinsale. Emma Thompson. Robert Sean Leonard. Brian Blessed. Imelda Staunton. And Michael Keaton as Dogberry, Constable of the Watch. They all came together to star in Kenneth Branagh’s adaptation of the Shakespearean comedy classic Much Ado About Nothing.

Branagh was, for a time, the self-styled cinematic interpreter of the Bard, with his Henry V, Hamlet, Love’s Labour’s Lost and Othello joining Much Ado in his oeuvre.

Washington is Don Pedro, who has just returned from battle in victorious glory. One of his best men is Claudio (Leonard), whose love for and betrothal to Hero (Beckinsale) is threatened by the skullduggery of Don Pedro’s half-brother Don John (Reeves). Don Pedro himself, however, is having a bit of fun with his right hand man Benedict (Branagh) by way of a gentle ruse, convincing both Benedict and the woman he detests, one governor’s niece Beatrice, that each of them is secretly in love with the other. All the while, Keaton’s twitchy, grubby and goofy constable Dogberry is sniffing around in search of wrongdoing in his own comically incompetent way.

Watch Kenneth Branagh’s Much Ado About Nothing for free in its entirety right here, right now on Fancast.