Pure excellence!

Rating: 10/10 (12 January 1999)

I have been waiting to see this film ever since I saw Paltrow on Leno. She briefly described the premise of the film and from the clip shown I knew I had to see this immediately! After a month and a half I saw it opening day of all theatres and I was afraid my expectations would be too high. Well, the film is everything I expected and more!
The review of Vernon Shure says it all. The performances are spectacular by all characters (it is a pleasure to see Paltrow, a mainstream actress, can speak in iambic pentameter beautifully instead of the not-so-great performance of Leonardo Dicaprio in the "MTV version" of Romeo & Juliet). This film is a must for all English majors and would even recommend this for high school students to show that William Shakespeare was a young man with mortal emotions and feelings and not some untouchable old man who liked to "confuse" people with his style of writing.
I'll sum it up by recalling Vernon Shure's opinion...it is a great thrill to see a movie with substance while entertaining at the same time!