SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE (Miramax/Universal) Starring: Joseph Fiennes, Gwyneth Paltrow, Geoffrey Rush, Colin Firth, Ben Affleck, Tom Wilkinson, Judi Dench. Screenplay: Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard. Producers: Donna Gigliotti, David Parfitt & Harvey Weinstein and Edward Zwick & Marc Norman. Director: John Madden. MPAA Rating: R (sexual situations, nudity, profanity, adult themes). Running Time: 122 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE offers an answer to 400 years' worth of high school English students who wondered why the heck he wrote that way -- turns out he spoke that way, too. As portrayed by Joseph Fiennes in this smart, sly and enchanting historical confection, Will Shakespeare is a the quintessential artist as hopeless romantic. Afflicted with writer's block and surviving only by scamming advances on his next play, Will needs a muse to inspire him. When he finds one -- the beautiful gentlewoman Vila de Lesseps (Gwyneth Paltrow) -- the words flow faster than he can contain them, both onto the page and from his lips. A poet awash in the language he gives to his own grand emotions, he even annoys his contemporaries into requests that he "talk prose."
One of the many brilliant twists in SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE is how it treats its protagonists' love with both utter sincerity and an ironic wink. The affair between Will and Viola is, of course, doomed -- he's an impoverished artist with an estranged wife and family, she's well-born and promised to the haughty Earl of Wessex (Colin Firth) -- yet that's part of what makes it so appealing for both of them. Prohibited from pursing an acting career by the era's prohibition of women on the stage (Elizabethan drama cast men in drag in women's roles), Viola sees her alliance with Will as a double rebellion against society; for Will, an ultimately unattainable woman inspires the heights of romantic idealism his art requires. As the two fairly glow in each other's presence, it's always clear that they're building a sense memory, not a relationship.
Before it begins to seem that SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE is merely a meta-commentary on romantic love, it should be clear that it's a sharp comedy which uses that theme for wonderful satire. The central romance becomes a parallel to the play Will is writing during the film -- one which begins as the comedy "Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate's Daughter" but morphs into something a bit more tragic. While debt-ridden theater owner Philip Henslowe (a great bit of comic acting by Geoffrey Rush) pleads for Will to create a crowd-pleasing comedy -- "something with a shipwreck, and a dog" -- the author secretly crafts what he believes is a more honest story. We see that the story's timeless appeal comes from the fact that it's as unreal as his romantic comedies -- it's a melodrama about two teenagers treating love the way teenagers do. Will Shakespeare is styled as the first Hollywood screenwriter, creating a love story not as it is, but the all-consuming way we all want to belive it is.
The Hollywood motif actually runs throughout SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE, and provides its best laughs. A money-lender (Tom Wilkinson) becomes a production partner with debtor Henslowe, suggesting net profit participation ("monkey points") as payment for the actors; later, a riverboat driver drops Christopher Marlowe's name as a previous passenger, and asks Will to read a script he has written; there's even a great piece of business where Will coaxes a prima donna actor (Ben Affleck) into taking a smaller role in "Romeo and Juliet" by telling him the play is titled "Mercutio." Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard (a writer who knows a think or two about deconstructing the Bard from "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead") create a whip-smart script which drops unapologetic anachronisms and fanciful historical revisionism into an already buoyant romantic comedy.
Considering how many things SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE tries, the astonishing thing about it as that it nails every one of them. As a period piece, it captures the glorious squalor of chamberpots raining down on pedestrians in 16th century London. As an allegory, it captures the appeal of the theatrical life for all its vanity and shady business dealings. As an actors' showcase, it gives splendid parts to splendid performers, notably Paltrow, Rush and Judi Dench (as a breathtakingly regal and insightful Queen Elizabeth). And as a pure romance, it has all the swoon appeal you could hope for in a tale of star-cross'd lovers. SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE is the kind of story that first delights as an exhilarating simple trifle, then only becomes better when you think about its layers and its language. It's almost -- dare one say it -- Shakespearean.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 tragical-historical comedies: 10.
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