Shakespeare in Love--good title, great movie

Rating: 10/10 (30 December 2000)

As Ned Alleyn (Ben Affleck) and the Admiral's men prepare to perform their production of Romeo and Juliet, Ned tells "the money", Hugh Fennyman (Tom Wilkinson), "Pay attention, and you will see how genius creates a legend." The same could have been said to any extras, cast, or crew on the set of "Shakespeare in Love." The movie covers a little more than three weeks in the life of the bard (Joseph Fiennes). He has writers' block, but the moneylender Fennyman will kill, or perhaps cut off the nose of, Philip Henslowe, who is expecting the play "Romeo and Ethel the Pirate's Daughter" to be finished yesterday. After an affair with Rosalind, Richard Burbage's seamstress, goes bad, he finally finds his muse in Viola de Lessaps (Gwyneth Paltrow). The daughter of a wealthy ex-shopkeeper, she is betrothed to marry Lord Wessex (an especially dastardly Colin Firth) after her parents return from the country in three weeks. In the meantime, however, she dresses like a man and adopts the name of Thomas Kent to play the part of Romeo. I was at first miffed by the use of Shakespeare's most famous, but not greatest, play for this movie, but given the inside jokes and parallels, I quickly forgave. "I say a plague upon both their houses..." a religious fanatic says to a crowd, preaching against acting. After a night of lovemaking, Viola and Will argue about whether or not it was, in fact, the rooster or the owl they just heard. Perhaps the most clever inside joke is the character John Webster, as an eager boy whose favorite part of the play was when Juliet stabbed herself. Few viewers would know that he will grow up to become one of the next generation of English playwrites, famous for his use of blood and violence. The movie has beautiful cinematography, and even more beautiful and unrealistic language. "Love knows nothing of rank, or riverbanks." Will says, arguing with Thomas Kent. "This is not life, Will, it is a stolen season." says Viola. She's right--but what a beautiful stolen season it is.