I adored Branagh's Hamlet. There are some over the top bits, but for the first time the whole thing made sense. And you owe yourself to see Billy Crystal as the First Gravedigger. "Because, my lord, she's dead."

edit: And Charlton Heston really could act, not just rant about guns.

Billy Crystal is much better as the Gravedigger than Michael Keaton is as the guard in Much Ado, although the worst of all was Keanu as Don Juan.

although the worst of all was Keanu as Don Juan.

But Beatrice and Benedick were well cast. If you get that right, it's hard to get Much Ado too wrong.

I lovelovelove Emma Thompson as Beatrice! She's so terrific in the role--breezy, yet biting, and bitter as can be after her sister is wronged. And Branagh is great as Benedick. "If he were a dog to have howled thus, they would have hanged him."

It's also a stunning argument for editing Shakespeare down for performance.

Ha!

I'm in the "couldn't sit through it" group. The age of the performers makes everything weirder. Like, maybe Ophelia went nuts because he's been leading her on for at least a decade. And why bother with the murder and mayhem when they'll all be dead of natural causes soon?

you owe yourself to see Billy Crystal as the First Gravedigger.

See, I feel like if one is committed to murder & mayhem, you should start with Billy Crystal and then move on to Robin Williams.

I'm in the "couldn't sit through it" group. The age of the performers makes everything weirder. Like, maybe Ophelia went nuts because he's been leading her on for at least a decade. And why bother with the murder and mayhem when they'll all be dead of natural causes soon?

Hee. I'm with Strega and Juliana.

Isn't there a website where you can search for book titles by their plots?

I mean, where you know what the book is about but can't recall the title?

Sumi, is this it?

[link]

I need a site like that specifically for kids books. I remember reading two books as a pre-teen that no one else seems to have heard of and I cannot remember their titles at all.

One was about a teen girl who entered a school essay contest just because she liked to write and ended up winning first prize of flying lessons. It followed her throughout the lessons until she flew solo the first time. I think it might have been written in the 60s or so because it was all "Ooooh, a girl won that prize! Ooooh, so radical!! Girls don't fly!!"

The second book I'm positive had been translated from either Norwegian or Swedish. The main characters were a brother and sister who stumble into some kind of dastardly plot to steal something. I don't remember the nefarious intentions offhand, but what stuck in my head was that they used Morse code to communicate when one of them was tied up to the pipes in a basement by the bad guy.

I'm sure if I re-read these books now, I'd be really disappointed in their quality, but I liked them very much as a kid.

It's also a stunning argument for editing Shakespeare down for performance.

I agree, but yet, I own it on DVD. (Or do we have the BluRay version? I can't remember.) Because there are parts of it that are good, and the costuming and scenery are gorgeous.