Shakespeare in Lust: Overrated Soap Opera

Rating: 4/10 (27 August 1999)

A few clever moments (Like the cameo by Jacobean schlockmeister John Webster) do not make up for the fact that this is basically a soap opera in Elizabethan drag. Am I the only person who finds a "love story" about a married man who abandons his wife and children a bit disturbing? This is the type of movie that pats a middlebrow audience on the back and makes them feel intelligent and cultured because they can appreciate that Shakespeare guy: hey, he was just a regular horney guy who knew how to use words to get girls! I also could have done without the new age therapist scenes (Get it? Its like he's seeing a psychologist! Isn't that just so clever and modern!) A film about the real Shakespeare that showed something of the real creative process (the source material for Romeo and Juliet is pretty well documented; it is a shame that people watching this film get the idea that WS wrought it out of personal experience; the myth of the 'tortured artist' didn't exist yet) would be greatly appreciated, but will probably never be made. A few points for those close up shots of ink stained hands though. Best part of the movie.