Daily Times

This well-intentioned adaptation of the Shakespeare romcom relocates the tale from Messina to modern day, faintly drizzly Britain. Beatrice and her cousin Hero are imagined as university students enjoying a languid afternoon together, until their idyll is shattered by a busload of high-spirited rugby players. Among them is Benedick – a commitment-phobic hunk who is horrified by the idea of marriage, but has been locked for some time in a “merry war” of words with Beatrice – and Claudio, his wetter, kinder friend, who has a crush on Hero that is fated only to grow, bland though she may be. The four characters’ inevitable flightpath to bliss is imperilled, however, by the machinations of Don John, a classic Shakespearean chaos agent who can’t bear to see others happy.