Alison Oatman

Literature Will Save The Planet!

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Emma Thompson as Beatrice in Branagh’s Much Ado About Nothing

The rather disappointing Branagh movie of Much Ado About Nothing was in part redeemed by Emma Thompson’s Beatrice, with its nuances of a Bronte-like independence conveyed mostly through tone and facial expression. 

–Harold Bloom

Emma Thompson radiates self-sufficiency and intelligence and good humor like very few actresses do. Her tongue is sharp, her furled brow is ironic and her carefully clipped words betray a quick mind and a solid will. She is no blushing maiden, but a matron comfortable with her strengths and in no need of salvation through marriage. She enjoys her freedom and in general, she is in search of a frolicking good time. Her marriage to Benedick (Branagh) at the end does not mark his taming or mastery of her, but the continuation of her self-governance as a woman with a mind and a life of her own. I agree with Bloom (and I can’t stop quoting the guy!) that through tone and facial expression she gives us so much–and she makes the part her own. Thanks to Thompson, Beatrice is a complex character: robust and flinty and joyous and dry all at the same time.

Alison Oatman attended Wellesley College and N.Y.U., where she majored in Italian Language and Literature. She obtained her M.A. in Medieval Studies at Columbia University.

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