A most ordinary and tedious crippled version of Romeo &Juliet, and what about Mr.W.H. and Shakespeare's bisexuality? Pray let this not be another Titanic nightmare...

Rating: Null/10 (12 March 1999)

It's an all-around good movie, with an ok cast (although Paltrow's accent still sucked, and Mr Affleck was simply out), good directing, costume, cinematography, etc. But the only problem is that there's nothing extraordinary about it and the love failed to distinguish itself from the sort in a Romeo and Juliet movie. Shakespeare is far more complicated than Romeo both emotionally and sexually. While Stoppard had the energy to delicately plant jokes about John Webster and Christopher Marlowe, I wonder why he couldn't have focused a bit more on Shakespeare's unique personality and sexuality and perhaps touch upon, even in the most remote way, the issue of Mr. WH of the sonnets. The whole story was tedious and far too predictable, the love is mellow, and the jokes careful. I was entertained yet it didn't provoke in me the sort of abundant feelings or thoughts that one experiences after watching movies like Hilary and Jackie, or Affliction, or Life is Beautiful. Shakespeare's poetic verse no doubt charms souls, but beyond that, what does the movie have for itself to touch or enlighten the audience? Nothing we haven't seen or heard before. Sure one could always be intrigued by love, even in the most boring way, but hey, I'm moved by the love of that cute guy in There's something about Mary too. While I've nothing against that movie or other romantic or sex comedies ---- in fact good ones could be really good and even thought-provoking (surprise surprise) such as Chasing Amy---- yet I thought I'd expect something more out of `S in love'.
I guess perhaps one has to give credit to Stoppard for carefully constructing all these `in-jokes' of his, and I did think it really funny when he had John Webster say "I like the last scene when she stabbed herself", yet I wonder if he could have focused more on the love, and Shakespeare himself, not merely his plays. I think the real challenge for S in love was how to present this love in a more Shakespearian way, and by that I don't mean to make it just another Shakespeare play -- in fact the movie is quite Shakespearian in that sense with abundant quotes from R&J. To be more specific, I wish Stoppard could have tackled with or at least vaguely touched upon those controversial issues about Shakespeare's love life and sexuality. After all it's Shakespeare we are talking about, and much of him we don't know for sure. With his knowledge of Shakespeare and his works, especially the famous Sonnets dedicated to the myseterious ` Mr. WH', Stoppard could perhaps have given the audience the privilege of a wider spectacle of the love life of the greatest playwright of all times instead of making it a mere Romeo and Juliet romance.
I'm not surprised that the movie got all these tons of nominations for Oscar. Last year's Titanic nightmare have completely stripped my faith in this award. Well after all, this is another example of the boring Titanic sort of grandeur here.