Great film with lots of emotion

Rating: 9/10 (8 June 2016)

Don't be afraid of the word Shakespeare in the title! This movie is not a junior-high history lesson. It's light, funny, romantic, and a totally irreverent look at Elizabethan England.
The screenplay is brilliant. The best writing in a movie I've seen this year. The idea is that Shakespeare is not some grave, great poet, but a young guy trying to make his way in the theater. He's written good plays, but nothing truly transcendent. The conceit is that an ill- fated romance--the one great true love of this life-- with a beautiful, smart woman is what inspires him to write his first immortal play: Romeo and Juliet.
In this era of world-exploding auctioneers and cookie-cutter Adam Sandler movies, it's rare to see such a specific, ingenious, and inspired story for a film.
The best part about this movie is its sense of humor. It plays with history, takes a great man abut whom we know almost nothing, and creates a fantasy about his life that is totally outrageous, funny and real.
Also, the movie is really romantic. The costumes are lush, the leads look great and have real chemistry together. I used to think that Gwyneth was overrated, but here she's radiant. And Joe Fiennes has an intensity and a vulnerability, as well as a sense of humor, that I for one find sorely lacking in his older brother Ralph.
Needless to say, this is the best date movie of the year. Women take note: I am a red-blooded straight American male, and I loved it. Take your boyfriends to see this movie. It will make up for you forcing them to sit through The Piano.