What was all the fuss about?

Rating: Null/10 (2 May 1999)

I waited a little while to see this highly recommended film and when I finally did, I was very disappointed. It was the closest thing to "the Emperor's new clothes" syndrome that I've experienced in a long, long, time. Talk about publicity and a few good reviews snowing the public! I found this film neither well written nor very witty or well performed by its leads. It simply isn't very entertaining. If this is supposedly one of the best films of the year, then the movies are in deep trouble. After seeing this movie I was particularly stunned that Gwyneth Paltrow had won the Oscar for best actress. Didn't anyone see Fernanda Montenegro in the superb "Central Station"? Paltrow's Shakespearean performance as Juliet was laughable, about on a par with a sophomore college production and to try to see her as Shakespeare's muse was the only real laugh I got in the entire two hours. In addition, Joseph Finnes played the bard like the lead in a television sitcom and I kept waiting for the laugh track to help him achieve his comic effects. I think what really, finally, annoyed me about this so called comedy was how self satisfied, pseudo-intellectual and manipulative it was (very like many of Tom Stoppard's plays, come to think of it). That is, it was if the filmmakers clearly aimed their picture at an upper middle class, middle brow audience who would get the obvious Shakespearean references, feel good about that Shakespeare 101 class they once attended, and then get swept away by the tepid, light weight, undemanding romance. Great film comedies have a broader appeal than this and the greatest, like Shakespeare's plays, attract and amuse all sorts of audiences. In addition, again unlike any of Shakespeare's plays, there wasn't one original idea in the piece or one honest emotion. The one joke, repeated over and over, was the long life of various theatrical cliche's. If that's the best "wit" Hollywood can come up with, I'll stick to "Peanuts". Shakespeare's plays are so much better then this film that I, for one, felt insulted for his memory.