Shakespeare for everyone!

Rating: 8/10 (17 January 1999)

For two sublime hours the viewer is transported to the Elizabethan era where women are forbidden to act and playwrights are the struggling authors of their day. The cast is a film marketer's dream. You have Gwyneth Paltrow, Ben Afleck, and Joseph Fiennes for the youngsters.You have Geoffrey Rush and Judi Dench for more mature viewers. For all viewers you have a beautiful bittersweet love story which you wish had, but never took place. It tries to answer the questions of how William Shakespeare came up with the classic love story, "Romeo and Juliet." According to screenwriters Tom Stoppard and Marc Norman, the Bard of Stratford-on-Avon came up with very little of it himself, borrowing freely from many local acquaintances and Christopher Marlowe himself.
Gwyneth Paltrow plays the theatre-loving Viola who pines for love and the chance to be an actress, in a time when all roles are portrayed by men. Joseph Fiennes is the playwright, Will Shapkespeare, suffering from writer's block and searching for the muse to spark his latest effort. Of course, he falls for Viola who also auditions for the role of Romeo in his current production (but he doesn't know he's a she.) The plot thickens and is spiced by the wonderful iambic pentameter of "Romeo and Juliet". There is just enough of the original play which will be familiar, but not too much so that younger audiences will be bored or annoyed.
The performances by the cast are fine all around. Miss Paltrow is becoming a star with a charisma that lights up the wide Panavision-sized screen. Joseph Fiennes, brother to Ralph, adds to the romantic chemistry and makes you believe he is the young William Shakespeare. The cameo appearance of Judi Dench as Queen Elizabeth is welcome and interesting in light of the concurrent film of her story, "Elizabeth", portrayed by Cate Blanchett during her earlier years.
The physical production is lush with realistic reproductions of the theatres of the time, as well as costumes and make-up both lovely and humorous. Special mention should be made of the fine background score by Stephen Warbeck. I actually stayed until the last final credit scrolled by to hear every note in spectacular digital sound.
Shakespeare in Love has a little for everyone, humor, romance, fine language, good acting, and something often rare in today's films, a good old-fashioned story.