Deliver Us From Eva [2003]

I'm watching 50-some odd Shakespeare adaptations this year and then writing about them for My Year of Shakespeare.

Finally, a Shakespeare adaptation that tackles real issues people have: What if baked beans too spicy? Mouth is on fire, how to put out baked beans fire? Oh no he's eating the beans! It's like if Quora wrote a screenplay.

This week we're bringing back Gabrielle Union four years after "10 Things I Hate About You" to step into the Katherine role in 2003's Deliver Us From Eva

Summary

For most of this post series, I'm going to try to surmise the plot based solely on the adaptation; I don't have a deep bench with Shakespeare with the possible exception of Romeo & Juliet. As a structuring principle, I'm borrowing the Just King Things five-sentence summary approach.

[1] The Dandrige sisters are the most gorgeous grown orphans in LA; the three younger sisters are married/engaged to the goofiest herbs in town, who are constantly being emasculated by the eldest Dandrige sister, Eva (Gabrielle Union). [2] The herbs conspire to have local lothario Ray (LL Cool J) seduce Eva, thereby making her less uptight and prone to interfere with them. [3] Eva, a restaurant inspector, gets the opportunity for a promotion; however it is in Chicago, which would mean moving away from her sisters, who are all co-reliant on each-other. [4] She also starts dating Ray, who meets and exceeds her standards; the two fall in love. [5] In an effort to send Eva away forever, the herbs kidnap Ray so they can fake his death, so that Eva will take the promotion and move; Ray escapes and reveals the conspiracy; however, this does not endear him to Eva, who takes the job, movies away, and can only be won back by grand gestures and stalker behavior.

My Thoughts

This is easily the silliest adaptation of "Taming" that I've watched for this. If you love buffoonery and pratfalls, sporadic scatological humor, this is for you. This really feels like it should've come out five years earlier and become a VHS legend where, if you had grown up with it, you quoted it all the time.

The writing isn't always there with this adaptation; in particular, the parts where Eva "talks up" with extraneous five-dollar words are painful, very much an example of a dumb person's idea of a how a smart guy talks; some of the punch-ups in the beauty salon or between the herbs feel extremely lazy and trade on uncharitable stereotypes.

That said, it also drew on lessons taught by "10 Things" and made Ray being open and vulnerable a core part of the plot. The end wasn't manipulating a strong woman into a lesser version of herself, it was [an admittedly shit route to] being a supportive and flexible partner. I think this probably has the best version of the herbs (formerly milhouses and assorted doofuses) that I've seen so far.

A weird thing to quibble over, but some of the wardrobe choices, in concert with the lighting, left much to be desired — for instance, I had to doubletake when LL Cool J showed up wearing this Not-A-Tube-Top:

Stray Highlights

Some of the humor also borders on Chuck Jones slapstick, and it rules.

I would wager this is the only Shakespeare adaptation I'm watching that has a "wazzup" joke. We'll find out next week as the subseries wraps up.

I think seeing Gabrielle Union in more stuff would be neat; she demonstrates some range she didn't really get to flex in "10 Things" here.

Next Week

It's our first double-week: I'm watching McLintock! (1963) and The Hottie and the Nottie (2008), both of which I have low expectations for.

Next Month

We're watching Romeo and Juliet adaptations - the schedule is as follows:

• Feb 7: Romeo and Juliet (1968)
• Feb 14: Romeo + Juliet (1996)
• Feb 21: West Side Story (1961) and West Side Story (2021)
• Feb 28: China Girl (1987)

Thank you for reading My Year of Shakespeare. If you have any thoughts, responses, etc, please feel free to write me an email (my email address will show up on the banner if you are signed in).