Good film, no masterpiece

Rating: 6/10 (13 May 2000)

After the tremendous amount of hype, this film has no chance of living up to it. Sure it's good, but it's not a masterpiece as critics would have you believe.
Still, there's no doubting that it has the finest of casts: Joseph Fiennes, for instance, makes a perfect young Bard whatever some might say; Judi Dench is magnificent in her cameo role; Colin Firth is a dastardly bad guy; even Ben Affleck manages to fit in; and many other familiar faces, such as Martin Clunes, Geoffrey Rush, Tom Wilkinson, and Mark Williams from 'The Fast Show' provide the laughs (well, at least a smile.)
As for Gwyneth Paltrow - well, you can't deny that she gives an excellent performance, but compare it to Cate Blanchett's far more moving portrayal of 'Elizabeth', and I think you can safely say the Oscar was questionable.
Overall, it may baffle you as to why this film should be labelled a 'comedy' (in my opinion, there is just far too many sloppy love scenes), but for an enjoyable and superbly-made costume drama, it definitely deserves some of the praise it has won.