Highly Overrated!

Rating: Null/10 (17 April 1999)

"Shakespeare in Love" is nothing more than a nice little movie. All of the media hype that it has received goes to show that good marketing can go a long way. Best Art Direction of 1998? That honor should've gone to "What Dreams May Come". Best Costume Design of 1998? Everyone who actually saw "Elizabeth" knows that film should've received that honor. There's so much buzz about the "Shakespeare in Love" script. The only interesting thing about the script consists of a few witty lines being said by the characters here and there in the movie, but that's it. The best thing about "Shakespeare in Love", which was Joseph Fiennes' performance, was almost completely overlooked. Judy Dench (who although is an excellent actress) was excessively praised for only eight minutes of screen time. And of course, the most obvious "praise" that this film has received was for the overexposed and overrated Gwyneth Paltrow. In this film, all she does is speak with a British accent, put on a boy's clothes and a mustache, and show her breasts--those are all things that could've been done by virtually any actress. Yet, Gwyneth went on to win several awards for one of her most dull performances. She gave a more challenging performance in "Sliding Doors". Meanwhile, Cate Blanchett in "Elizabeth" was beyond overlooked for one of THE best performances ever. As far as "Shakespeare in Love" being considered the best film of the year: I thought it was one of the better films of 1998, but it certainly was not that year's best film.