An homage to Shakespeare and his times.

Rating: Null/10 (14 August 2000)

`Shakespeare in Love' is a must-see movie. It is suspenseful, exciting, and romantic - all things a good movie should be. And, lets face it, there is an awful lot of rubbish out there.
The film takes a real event (the creation of the play, `Romeo and Juliet') and presents a fictional reason why that event occurred. And if the fictional reason is plausible (as it is in `Shakespeare in Love'), then the movie can be fascinating for the audience. In the film, the reason behind the creation of the play was a fictional romance between Shakespeare and Viola.
Several of the comedic situations in the film are classic Shakespeare. These are situations involving women dressed as men, mistaken identities, and the use of disguises. The comedy arises from the consequences of the characters being in these situations.
The world created by the director feels real enough to step into. But you would have to be careful where you stepped. This was the point made by the incident where a bit of garbage (or sewage) was thrown out of a top floor window and narrowly missed one of the characters walking down the street. This was a fairly common event in Shakespearean London.
In the film, the portrayal of the back-stage feeling the actors had when they were rehearsing or performing `Romeo and Juliet' was very real. I felt like I was there. The film made me feel what it would have been like to be in the audience who saw `Romeo and Juliet' for the very first time. How lucky that audience was!
The scene where the stutterer presented the prologue is totally realistic. A stutterer suddenly getting his or her voice when giving a speech is a well-documented phenomenon. (By the way, the prologue, as presented by the character in `Shakespeare in Love' was far superior to the prologue in Baz Luhrmann's production of `Romeo and Juliet' - starring Leonardo DiCaprio. In my opinion, Luhrmann's `Romeo and Juliet' was a very poor interpretation of Shakespeare.)
The film gives you an understanding of the oppressed role of women in Elizabethan England. You could really feel sorry for Viola being forced to marry a character like Wessex, just because Queen Elizabeth gave her approval - which was the same as a command. (The monarchy, at that time, was still a powerful institution - when the queen said jump, you jumped.)

The business world of theater was believably portrayed, and you could understand the growth pangs of the industry. The film also demonstrated how money, in addition to Shakespeare's need to create, spurred the growth of the theater.
The language in the play seemed like it belonged to the era. The movie slid effortlessly between the real Shakespearean language and the pseudo-Shakespearean language the screenwriter made up. (Imagine if the film had used 20th century English; it would have been totally jarring.)
There were lots of in-jokes for Shakespearean fans. Check out the character holding the skull. (A homage to the grave yard scene in Hamlet.)
`Shakespeare in Love' had a lot of clever touches. One I really liked was the scene where the Lord of Wessex thought that Shakespeare was a ghost.
The acting was excellent. Colin Girth as the Lord of Wessex was a great villain. He seemed real, not just a caricature of evil. Joseph Finnes as Shakespeare was fantastic. You could really identify with him. Also, Gwyneth Paltrow was an excellent casting choice as Viola as she projected the right combination of strength and vulnerability. She was also a character one could identify with.
`Shakespeare in Love' is a great film. Not only is it engaging, amusing, and suspenseful, it will bring Shakespeare to everyone. Shakespeare need no longer be the aloof and mysterious topic many imagine it to be. Not that the movie will make Shakespearean English any easier to understand, but it may motivate people to take that little bit of time necessary to understand the Shakespearean text and, thus, enjoy the play. Certainly they may want to see some of the excellent film versions of Shakespeare, such as Franco Zeffirelli's `Romeo and Juliet' (1968), Zeffirelli's 1990 `Hamlet' starring Mel Gibson, and Kenneth Branagh's 1996 production of `Hamlet.'

The DVD has two excellent commentaries. They are well worth listening to.
See this film, and you will know why it won seven academy awards.