Fine job of depicting Shakespeare

Rating: Null/10 (14 February 1999)

Shakespeare in Love is a kind of flight of fancy about the source of Shakespeare's inspiration being a woman he fell in love with but could not have. It should hardly come as a surprise to think that Shakespeare should have been inspired by being smitten, since so much of his best poetry emanates from characters who are in love, but the film portrays him as a struggling playwright who has recently been painstakingly penning a play called "Romeo and Ethel the Pirate's Daughter" and finding it unbearable.
This is clearly before he had found his way as one of England's most prominent playwrights. He is under pressure from the owner of The Rose, a theatre in fierce competition with The Curtain, across the river, where Richard Burbage has just stolen Will's latest play and presented it before the Queen. The Rose itself is threatened by its moneylender, who wants to see a play on stage in two weeks that will fill the house and make him a fortune. Meanwhile, all of the thespians auditioning have chosen to quote Marlowe as their demonstration.
Obviously, history dictates that "Romeo and Ethel the Pirate's Daughter" will undergo signifigant changes before it hits the stage. Shakespeare finds his will and pen being moved by his love for Lady Viola, a minor noblewoman who is due to be married to the arrogant Lord Wessex. Wessex is suspicious of Will from their first meeting, and his worst fears are confirmed by the Queen, who interrogates Viola according to custom, to approve her for marriage, and then tells him, "Have her then, but you'd be a lordly fool. She's been plucked, and not by you." However, he thinks she is in love with Marlowe, since Shakespeare identifies himself as him.
Soon, as the play gradually is shaped into what would become "Romeo and Juliet", Viola secretly auditions for the role of Romeo under the guise of a non-existent actor named Thomas Kent. She is perfect for the role, except for the fact that she is a woman, and therefore barred from the stage. Paltrow gives a winning performance in a character that has to do a sort of Victor/Victoria switch, by playing a woman playing a male actor who plays a female part in a play.
Judi Dench is one of the best things about the film, bringing her characteristic wit with her into her role of Queen Elizabeth. She is sharp-tongued and unrelenting, but demonstrates subtle sympathy at a crucial moment. I also enjoyed Joseph Fiennes as Will Shakespeare, who finds the right tone of the tormented artist without creeping into melodrama. Tom Stoppard does a good job of bringing the language and readings to life. See it even if you never read a word of Shakespeare.