Wonderful! Go see it!

Rating: 10/10 (9 January 1999)

The acting, the costuming, the overall art direction, pacing, editing, and all the rest are fabulous. My only quibble was that in Joseph Fiennes' tragic moments, his face contorted as if he were on a stage and playing to the farthermost back row in the balcony (instead of in a movie), grimacing instead of _expressing_ pain, despair, and frustration. Everything else, however, was about as perfect as one could wish. The dialogue captured Shakespeare wonderfully, full of double, even triple or quadruple entendres, and of course Shakespeare's own lines were delivered so well that we left the theater feeling that we had just seen performances that set the standard for all time. Gwyneth Paltrow, Joseph Fiennes, Geoffrey Rush, Imelda Staunton, and all the cast were about as perfect as they could be. Incredible. The costuming and sets were perfectly accurate historically as well as being -- when they were supposed to be -- as gorgeously beautiful as they could have been. Go see it!