Movie Review: Shakespeare in Love (1998) A Review by: Ryan Davis Rated: `R'
There are hardly any historical-romantic comedies produced, so `Shakespeare in Love' is quite a rarity, a gem you could say. It's funny, romantic, highly entertaining and even brilliant at times. At first I thought all the hype was too much to live up to, but it manages to live up to all my expectations.
The film begins with Philip Henslowe (Geoffrey Rush), a bad businessman who owns a theatre, agreeing to let some people he owes money to in on his new play, which is supposed to be a comedy from Will Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes), entitled `Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate's Daughter.' Unfortunately, Will doesn't have any inspiration to write; he thinks he has lost his gift.
That is until he meets Viola (Gwyneth Paltrow), at an audition for the play. She is dressed up as a man, and is the only one who auditioned to use one of Shakespeare's sonnets for the audition. Soon he finds out she is really a woman and they fall madly in love. Sadly their love can never be, because she is promised to Lord Wessex (Colin Firth) and they are marrying in a few weeks.
Will and Viola's relationship inspires him to change the entire play to seemingly reflect their lives and it gradually becomes `Romeo And Juliet' As things happen in his life, he adds something to the story that is similar to their lives. As the movie progresses, the parallelism continues to grow; it's remarkably written.
It's not just the parallelism of the script that's great, the dialog is superb and the characters are extremely well developed. It's also beautifully filmed; the costumes and sets are gorgeous. The acting couldn't be any better. Joseph and Gwyneth are phenomenal in their roles, and even Ben Afflect is terrific in his cameo appearance.
`Shakespeare in Love' is a perfect romantic film; it never tries too be too sappy or manipulate the audience. Also nominated for thirteen Academy Awards, this wonderful film should be on the top of your must see list.
Grade: A
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