Film

As You Like It

Name: As You Like It
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Released: 2006
Cast: Romola Garai, Kevin Kline, Bryce Dallas Howard, Adrian Lester, Janet McTeer

Other titles called As You Like It: the 1992 film.

Romantic comedy
Light-hearted

Loncraine's 2006 Shakespeare adaptation transplants Rosalind and Orlando's romance to 19th-century Japan, where exile in the Forest of Arden becomes a realm of wit, disguise, and self-discovery. The film moves with theatrical fluidity, finding genuine warmth in banter and tenderness beneath the wordplay. It's for people who love romance that thinks, and Shakespeare that breathes.

TMDb rating

2.9

If you liked this

Twelfth Night1996

Nunn's adaptation matches Loncraine's energy—playful, fast-paced, with strong cast chemistry. Viola's disguise comedy and the love tangle have the same delighted sense of theatrical possibility.

But If you want faithful Shakespeare, the modern setting and comedic emphasis might feel like a betrayal of the source text.

Much Ado About Nothing1993

Branagh's version shares Loncraine's gift for making Shakespearean wit feel like genuine flirtation. Beatrice and Benedick's sparring romance has the same intoxicating verbal chemistry as Rosalind and Orlando.

But The film leans heavily on slapstick and broad comedy, which works beautifully if you're in the mood for it but can feel forced if you're not.

The Phantom of the Opera2004

Lloyd Webber's lush romanticism and the central love triangle amid elaborate theatrical artifice share the same intoxicating blend of beauty, yearning, and spectacle that Loncraine brings to Arden.

But The Gothic melodrama is far more operatic than comedic, and if you prefer restraint to soaring emotion, the overwrought registers will feel exhausting.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from As You Like It

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Brigadoon1954

Both films locate romantic and personal truth in an enchanted elsewhere—a space separate from society's rules where disguise and play reveal rather than conceal authenticity.

A magical forest (Scottish village) where lovers are transformed and time stops, revealing truths that the real world obscures. Like Arden, it's a space where the rules are suspended and the heart finds clarity.

But This is a musical, and if song-and-dance numbers feel like a detour rather than the point, the film will frustrate you. The ending is sentimentally committed to transformation in ways that may feel dated.

Pride & Prejudice2005

Wright's adaptation captures the same thing Loncraine does: smart banter as foreplay, and the gradual erosion of self-protective defenses through wit. Both films make romance feel like intellectual play.

But The period setting is Victorian England rather than magical forest, so it trades fantasy and disguise for social realism and constraint.

A Midsummer Night's Dream1999

Hoffman's version embraces the same theatrical magic and romantic chaos. Love potions and enchanted forests work much like Arden's transformative space—everyone becomes someone else before finding themselves.

But The fairy world can feel overcrowded, and some viewers find the magical logic harder to follow than the disguises and wordplay in Rosalind's story.

Cymbeline2014

A lesser-known Shakespeare comedy with similar DNA: disguise, separation, forest exile, and a woman who must navigate a treacherous world by wit and courage. Underrated and genuinely moving.

But The plot is more convoluted than As You Like It, and the tone shifts between comedy and genuine danger in ways that some find uneven.

The Taming of the Shrew1967

Taylor and Burton bring fierce chemistry and linguistic combat to their roles. The banter-as-love-language mirrors what Loncraine does, though Shrew plays the power dynamics more sharply.

But The gender politics haven't aged gracefully, and the film can feel more combative than romantic, even as it insists it's a love story.

Sense and Sensibility1995

Lee's adaptation, like Loncraine's film, trusts that romantic longing can coexist with sharp observation and humour. Both find depth in the space between what people say and what they feel.

But Period drama pacing may feel slower than you expect if you're drawn to As You Like It primarily for its theatrical energy and momentum.

Branagh Theatre Live: The Winter's Tale2015

This BBC adaptation captures the same Shakespearean themes of loss, transformation, and redemption. Like Arden, the pastoral second half offers genuine renewal after the opening darkness.

But The shift in register from tragedy to comedy can feel jarring, and the resolution relies on magical acceptance that doesn't sit as comfortably as Rosalind's witty plotting.

Branagh Theatre Live: The Winter's Tale poster

Amélie2001

Both works use theatricality and witty scheming as expressions of love—the romantic here operates through playful manipulation of circumstance rather than straightforward declaration.

Jeunet's film shares the playful anarchism and romantic mischief-making of As You Like It. Both are fundamentally about the joy of wit deployed in service of love and connection, with a theatrical visual language that delights in artifice.

But The whimsical tone and stylized visuals, while charming, can feel precious or overstretched if you prefer naturalism. Some find the romance saccharine rather than genuinely earned.

Singin' in the Rain1952

Both films trust that theatrical performance—disguise, music, stylized movement—is not escape from truth but a path toward it. In both, becoming someone else reveals who you actually are.

A film about performance and genuine feeling coexisting beautifully. Like Loncraine's Shakespeare, it knows that artifice (costumes, scripts, choreography) can reveal rather than hide the truth of human connection.

But The musical form itself will exclude you if you can't or don't want to embrace songs and dance as narrative. The romantic plot is fairly slight beneath the spectacle.