The muse

Rating: 7/10 (8 August 2014)

William Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes) is suffering from writer's block and needs a muse to inspire him.
Viola (Gwyneth Paltrow) is a young woman from a wealthy family who loves the theatre and disguises as a man and gets a part but runs away.
Will meets Viola and gets inspired by her and pursues her but Viola is arranged to marry Lord Wessex (Colin Firth) a man of nobility who is very jealous.
Will despite being married wins Viola's heart and writes Romeo and Juliet but as the play is performed, it might lead to a tragedy especially as Viola is earlier exposed as a female who at the time were banned from performing.
The film is uplifted by its cast who are uniformly good even Ben Affleck. Its surprising to think that the film was for some years had been stuck in development hell. Some years earlier it was marked out to be a Kenneth Branagh/Juliet Roberts project. The film was obviously reworked successfully and Paltrow's performance elevates it.
The film moves along with elan and enthusiasm and never feels stodgy for an Elizabethan period piece.