This is what beautiful film making can be.

Rating: 8/10 (17 March 1999)

I've grown up watching many older movies and I am always struck by one thing: these movies that have stood the test of time have endured because they have SCREENPLAYS. All About Eve, Adam's Rib, It Happened One Night--great films don't just have a hacked story augmented by many flashy effects or an explosion at the end. They have something to say, a reason for us to listen. This reason is for us to renew our love of words, our love of other human beings, what makes life beautiful. Fifty years from now, Titanic and Armageddon will be the three o'clock movie if they're lucky. Shakespeare in Love will have joined the ranks of the classics, and I will watch it and remember the first time I saw it with my friends. I will remember walking out to the car without saying a word, then putting my head on the steering wheel and crying because the film celebrated words, and love, and I will thank Tom Stoppard and Marc Norman for creating the celebration.