Very Good

Rating: Null/10 (14 June 2001)

Oddly enough, there seem to be a number of negative comments regarding this movie. Unfortunately, I think many people saw it AFTER it won the awards and got lots of praise and found that it did not quite live up to their high expectations.
In my opinion, however, it is a very good film. It is surprising, actually, that it was not made before - very little is known about Shakespeare's personal life, and much of what we consider "fact" is still uncertain. This leaves quite a lot of room for experimentation.
The plot was nice, and it was lots of fun to see common themes from Shakespeare's plays appearing in the film. The only problem I had was the fact that Viola (Gwyneth Paltrow) was disguised as a boy. I think it was used because women disguised as men often appear in Shakespeare's plays, but it is an overused concept. Every novel of historical fiction that I have read about Shakespeare uses this, and it gets a bit dull after awhile.
As for the acting, it was very well done. Joseph Fiennes and Gwyneth Paltrow were good in the leads, and I particularly enjoyed Ben Affleck's performance as Ned Alleyn. In an uncredited performance as Kit Marlowe (he only appeared for a few minutes), Rupert Everett was as good as ever, and I wish that we'd seen more of him. His character is discussed throughout the film and has even convinced me to read some Marlowe which I have never done.
Overall, I enjoyed it very much, and I think it deserved the awards it won.