...relentlessly satisfying.

Rating: 10/10 (27 December 1998)

Don't read any detailed reviews before you see this film; just go, and let the movie surprise and delight you. The movie stars Joseph Fiennes in the title role, and Gwyneth Paltrow as Lady Viola de Lesseps. If you're a scholar of Shakespeare and his times, there are plenty of in-jokes; just be willing to accept some literary license (but you're in good hands: one of the screenwriters is noted playwright Tom Stoppard).
Joseph Fiennes makes a believable Shakespeare, and the cast is rounded out by some notables (whom you can read about on the IMDb).
But the real star of this film is Gwyneth Paltrow. She is stunning, beautiful, charming, funny, strong, and affecting as the love of Shakespeare's life, and her performance in the "play within a play" aspect of this film is brilliant and moving. In addition to the romance, there's plenty of comedy, tragedy, and swashbuckling adventure to go around to make this movie relentlessly satisfying.