After a brief theatrical run overseas, As You Like It, Kenneth Branagh's latest William Shakespeare adaptation, has arrived on American shores as an HBO premiere. Branagh's affection for the Bard is no secret. This is his fifth film version of Shakespeare's works, including his legendary adaptation of Hamlet and the underrated Love's Labour's Lost, done in the style of a 1930s musical spectacular. Sadly, although As You Like It is lush and beautiful to look at, its structure appears puzzling and all over the map.

Branagh shifts the action of the play action from France to Japan, not long after the country has opened its doors to traders from the West, allowing businessmen to come in and build up their own little economic kingdoms. Duke Senior (Brian Blessed) and his family live in peace, until his younger brother Duke Frederick (also Blessed) bursts in one night, banishes his brother to the nearby forest of Arden, and sets about taking over his affairs.

Frederick keeps his niece, Rosalind (Bryce Dallas Howard), around to be a companion to his own daughter, Celia (Romola Garai), but his disposition changes when the public starts to feel sorry for the poor girl. Before Frederick can take any action, Rosalind and Celia escape into the forest, where the former, dressed as a man, finds herself in a tight situation when she encounters Orlando (David Oyelowo), himself on the run from a tyrannical relative, and, as per usual in stories like these, falls in love with him despite her masculine facade.

Though not as universally familiar as "Hamlet" or "Romeo & Juliet," "As You Like It" is famous for being the play that includes the "All the world's a stage..." monologue. After seeing Branagh's handling of the Bard's material, one wonders if the play's relative obscurity is well-earned. The film looks beautiful, the cast is sterling, and as writer and director, Branagh obviously knows what he's doing. Yet the movie turns out to be a dreadful bore. The biggest problem involves the plot, or rather the script's inability to find one. What begins as a tale of family, double-crossings, and classier takes on other forms of soap-opera fodder eventually starts flip-flopping back and forth, indecisive about what type of story it wants to be. 

"Inexplicable relationships" would probably land among the 10 things I hate most to see in movies, if I were making such a list. I'm a passionate movie buff, but I have a hard time believing that some characters fall in love at the drop of a hat, especially in a situation like the one depicted in As You Like It. Rosalind and Orlando pull a "meet cute" and bat their eyes at one another before the former is bowled over by the latter's courage at a...sumo match! Even more bothersome is the prolonged nature of their relationship while  Rosalind, disguised as a boy (not even a convincing one, at that), starts playing around with Orlando and hiding her true identity for no fulfilling reason whatsoever (another element I'd slap on that top ten list I mentioned).

Switching from drama to comedy, then back again fails to work in this movie, and the Japanese influences -- though beautiful -- are an unintentionally hilarious touch, but the actors fare amazingly well. Howard makes a playful Rosalind; Blessed is even better as the noble Duke Senior than as the samurai armor-clad Frederick; and Alfred Molina is truly delightful as an entertainer who looks like a cross between Charlie Chaplin and Beakman. Unfortunately, a number of side actors, from Kevin Kline to Janet McTeer, seem caught in the crossfire as the script keeps on firing more random supporting characters with paper-thin subplots than Gosford Park.

Granted, I'm not exactly Mr. Theatre, and the Mel Gibson version of Hamlet is the closest I've come to escaping the more recent, modernized takes on Shakespeare's material. But I can't help thinking it's true the Bard wrote As You Like It as a mere trifle to please his fanbase. As pretty as it can be, and as pristine as the cast looks, this film is not quite as I like it. 

MY RATING: ** (out of ****)

(Released by HBO Films and rated "PG" for some violence and sexual material.)