An ordinary above average film

Rating: 6/10 (18 November 2000)

The film's screenplay is quite remarkable. But for that, I found it a very ordinary film.
Any Tom Stoppard play is great stuff. But this film had so many goofs: psychoanalysis in the Elizabethan era, eighteenth century musical instuments on show two centuries before, talk of tobacco gardens in America that did not exist then...
I cannot believe this film which has above average performances by Judi Dench and Paltrow, could sweep the Oscars that were denied to "The Thin Red Line," a far superior film in so many departments!