no match

Rating: 2/10 (14 April 2014)

Once you are accepting the fact that this is a typical Hollywood blockbuster you can somewhat enjoy the show. If you are slightly educated and acquainted with Shakespeare on a certain level there won't be any surprises about the unfolding of this plot. That is except for it's competition for the most ridiculous and most daring allusions to the historical facts in an attempt to squeeze "Romeo and Juliet" into Shakespeare's biography by force. The characters are flat and simple. Gwyneth Paltrow does her job of acting being passionately cute with her gasping duck face looks adoring both poetry and poet. Only the bizarre boy shows through his cruel sense of humor and his sadistic obedience how the general perception of violence in public was in those days. Also the Queen is portrayed in an appealing way demonstrating her absolute power and the stiff and inhuman but yet lively and intelligent moves. The final highlight or climax in unacceptable and most improbable unrealistic reactions is when the husband Lord Wessex sneaks into the theatre just to calm down and watch his wife kissing his rival on stage. To my mind this production is a sugar free and condensed version of Shakespeare that can only survive in entertaining by straining overused strategies of modern American film industry. No match to the original.