A good film spoiled by anachronistic jokes

Rating: 6/10 (23 February 2013)

William Shakespeare falls in love with a noblewoman, cures his writers block, hob-nobs with various Elizabethan characters like Queen Elizabeth 1 and Christopher Marlowe, introduces the first woman onto the British stage and writes one of the finest plays in the English language. All this is very enjoyable and as a love story I really enjoyed the film. I was also very impressed by the quality of most of the script. In particular there are some quite wonderful sequences which intercut scenes from Romeo and Juliet as it is performed and the interactions between the characters in the film. Many of these scenes were masterfully handled (or should that be personfully these days?). It reminded me very much of scenes from "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead" so I wasn't surprised at all to see that Tom Stoppard was one of the scriptwriters. In fact I assume Stoppard was responsible for the best parts of the script though I may be wrong about that.
It was odd to see both Geoffrey Rush and Joseph Fiennes playing in virtually the same costumes that they had worn in Elizabeth. Both play excellently as does Ben Affleck (making some amends for that truly dreadful Will Hunting abomination) and Gwyneth Paltrow as the object of Shakespeare's affection. Personally I found it hard to see Paltrow as Juliet but she is an excellent actress. In fact everyone in the film acts their socks off and it would be difficult to find fault with them.
An excellent film based on what I've said so far then. But there are unfortunately quite significant problems with it and they reside almost entirely with the comedic aspects of the script. Throughout the film, but especially in the first third of it, there are a series of jokes that would be rejected for a Carry On film. If I tell you that one of the better comic lines is "Follow that boat" then you will get the idea. The jokes are also anachronistic in the way that the language used in Xena, Warrior Princess is California-speak transplanted to ancient Greece. But it works in Xena because it is done to the Max. In this film it hardly ever works because the jokes are in modern parlance whilst the rest of the script is written with proper regard to the nuances of the language of the time. The fact that there are so many actors from British TV comedies is also very distracting for a British audience because you are never sure when they are supposed to be taken seriously or when they are working up to another weak joke.
I have no doubt whatsoever that this film would have been improved by playing it as a straightforward historical romance and dropping the anachronistic jokes. This does not mean that funny scenes are not allowed but simply that it IS difficult to have your cake and eat it. I really enjoyed the film but the jarring switches between ancient and modern spoiled it for me and are wholly responsible for me knocking at least one star off of my rating.
A nearly brilliant film spoiled by alleged comic interludes.