This beat Private Ryan?

Rating: Null/10 (11 August 1999)

"Shakespeare in Love" is a nice little movie, featuring nice little actors and a nice little movie. I rather enjoyed it, in all honesty, but I really don't feel that it was up to par to win seven Academy Awards, and I am especially insulted that it could ever beat "Saving Private Ryan," the masterpiece epic of World War II, for best picture.
It's an interesting idea, about Shakespeare writing "Romeo and Juliet" because he was inspired by an actual love affair. It's borders between romantic comedy and historical piece, and it works pretty good. The cast is good (especailly Judi Dench) and the direction is nice for the balance of genres. Great costumes, too.
However, there are some major flaws. Gregory Rush is barely used. He has a few nice scenes in the beginning, but then he is reduced to a backdrop. Guys, if you're going to have Rush's excellence in a film, USE him. And just the opposite for Ben Affleck. What the heck was he doing in this film? He reminded me that episode of Seseme Street with Julia Roberts...Out of place and fully aware of it.... Oh, nevermind. You get the picture.
The whole idea is also inaccurate. Obviously, the writers didn't realize (or they chose to ignore) the fact that Romeo and Juliet was already a popular storyline at the time William wrote it, and he just redid it for the play. So that makes this whole movie impossible. With this knowledge in mind, this was a real dissapointment, considering it was played like it could have possibly been inspired from real events.
Mr. Speilberg, I'd like to apologize on behalf of all of the people who know that S.P.R. should have won. I swear, someone paid the people off for this one to win best picture. It was a fun little film, but certainly not a masterpiece like your epic. Better luck next time.
*** out of *****