BRANAGH BRINGS OUT GREAT PERFORMANCES IN 'AS YOU LIKE IT'.

Byline: DAVID KRONKE

>TV CRITIC

There's a lot of plot in William Shakespeare's "As You Like It," so if one story line doesn't engage you, just wait a while. Kenneth Branagh has moved the action to 19th-century Japan, where British merchants have set up shop, and all manner of intrigue and romance is preparing to spring into action.

Branagh has focused his adaptation on the playful romance between Rosalind (Bryce Dallas Howard) -- daughter of the Duke Senior (Brian Blessed), banished by his brother to the Forest of Arden -- and Orlando (David Oyelowo), who's in a bit of a brotherly power struggle of his own.

Rosalind has escaped into the woods with her pal and cousin Celia (Romola Garai), posing as a man for safety's sake. When she is reintroduced to Orlando, about an hour into the film, he doesn't recognize her, and she (a little sadistically) goes about testing his affections for her.

Eventually, love wins out -- not only for Rosalind and Orlando, but for just about everyone else in the cast, too, including Celia and Orlando's brother Oliver (Adrian Lester) and the fool Touchstone (Alfred Molina under an "Eraserhead" wig) and the less-than-hygienic Audrey (Janet McTeer). Jacques (Kevin Kline) roams through the action as a bit of a Greek chorus, delivering the famous "All the world's a stage" soliloquy.

Lovely visuals and charming performances mark this adaptation, but someone at some point might want to rethink Shakespeare's trope of a woman successfully duping all while wearing men's clothing. In Shakespeare's day, audiences might've bought it because, after all, the woman in men's clothing actually was a man. These days, however, you're going to lose some audience members trying to convince them that anyone would mistake someone like Bryce Howard for a guy.

David Kronke, [phone]

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www.insidesocal.com/tv

AS YOU LIKE IT - Three stars

>What: Kenneth Branagh places Shakespeare's romantic comedy in 19th-century Japan; Kevin Kline and Bryce Dallas Howard star.

>Where: HBO.

>When: 9 tonight; also 4 p.m. Saturday, 10:30 a.m. and midnight Aug. 29, 10:45 a.m. Sept. 2, 4 p.m. Sept. 6, 2 p.m. Sept. 11.

>In a nutshell: Agreeable adaptation of one of Shakespeare's slighter plays.

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Photo:

Bryce Dallas Howard plays Rosalind, here masquerading as a man, in "As You Like It." The HBO production moves the Forest of Arden to 19th-century Japan.