Review: Shakespeare in Love (1998)

A movie about Shakespeare. Not a film version of one of his plays, or a documentary on his works. A film about Shakespeare. William Shakespeare - the person. Talk about a high concept! It’s hard to believe that Shakespeare was actually a person and not a conglomerate, nowadays it seems his modern counterpart would be something like Disney. But, believe it or not Shakespeare did live once, in Elizabethan England. Not much is know about his life, so it was a wonderful idea that the makers of Shakespeare in Love decided to give us a farcical comedy rather that a period melodrama.

I would love to actually meet Shakespeare, and after this film I believe I did. He is wonderfully played by Joseph Fiennes (brother to Ralph) and he is presented as a proud, gutsy man. He is not worshipped by this film, but he is it’s hero. The film’s story sound like a play the bard could have written himself. Shakespeare is having a difficult time writing his latest play "Romeo and Ethel, The Pirates Daughter". It is imperative to the proprietor of the Rose theater (Geoffrey Rush, who is hilarious) that Shakespeare finish the play so he can use it’s profits to pay off his cash flow problems. However, William cannot finish his play until he finds a muse to inspire him. He finds one in the beautiful Viola ( the vibrant Gwyneth Paltrow), who inspires him to write his defining masterpiece Romeo and Juliet. The two fall in love and Viola, who wants to be an actor, defies the law (that states that only men can be actors) by going undercover as a male actor to play Romeo. The two continue a passionate affair under everyone’s noses. However there are problems. Viola’s hand has been promised to the ass-hole Lord Wessex (Colin Firth). How can Shakespeare and Viola be together forever? Don’t worry; they don’t kill themselves! The film becomes a comedy of errors and contains some wonderful belly-laugh sequences.

An array of colorful character such as a greedy thug (Tom Wilkinson), Queen Elizabeth (the awesome veteran Judi Dench), a popular, yet vain thespian (Ben Affleck, good but occasionally he seems woefully out of place), Shakespeare’s writing competitor (Rupert Everett), John Webster, a sicko teenage soon-to-be-playwright, AKA Rat Boy (some small English boy) and many more are memorable and always hilarious.

The script is flawless. However, the more you know about the Bard, the funnier it’ll be. Be even if you don’t know bacon from Hamlet, you’ll still guffaw at the many slapstick moments. John Madden’s (Mrs. Brown) direction is impeccable. His sense of timing and manic paces is wonderfully Shakespearean.

It’s strange how a film can be so smart, so funny and so appealing all at the same time. There’s not much more you need to know then that Shakespeare In Love is one of the best films of the year.

9/10

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