Oscar who????

Rating: Null/10 (29 March 1999)

This movie being number 20 on the all-time IMDB list (as of March 30) shows you how easily people are influenced by hype. I wouldn't put this movie in the top 200 of all time. The movie was enjoyable to a certain extent. I thought Joseph Fiennes (if anyone) deserved an Oscar nod for his performance as Shakespeare. Geoffrey Rush was good. Judi Dench was good. But Gwyneth Paltrow gave the most over-acted performance of her career. I actually started to like her after "Sliding Doors" but man, she was screaming "give me the oscar" throughout this whole film. At the first of the movie she was intriguing and luring, but as the movie unfolded, she really became stale. I think that, other than Paltrow, the acting was great. The cinematography was great. The costumes were great. But really, folks, the story was lame. It was too basic and fundamental to keep my attention. And the sex scenes between Paltrow and Fiennes became excessive and unnecessary after the third one. I think they concentrated too much on "Star Power" than on the script, which was mundane and contained many factual errors. It tried to rely on being cute and romantic, which obviously was enough to satisfy most moviegoers, but not me. Don't get me wrong, I love love stories, when they are good. This one was trite and boring. 2 out of 4 stars......