A marvelous movie

Rating: 10/10 (28 February 1999)

Shakespeare in Love is a marvelous movie. This is what going to movies should be like all the time: lifting you out of your everyday life and worries into a magical world. Silly, funny, charming, harrowing, and truthful all at the same time, it works on many levels. It's an homage to Shakespeare; it's a love story so beautiful and true that it hurts; it's a satire on modern Hollywood. And somehow it manages to blend all these together with never a false note, always both true to its own spirit and to truth itself. The ending is bittersweet but honest, with no contrived happy ending. (And while it does take liberties with history, the liberties are self-consistent and never distracting.)
As for the cast, Gwyneth Paltrow seems to glow throughout, even when disguised as a man, and the other players, many familiar from various British productions, are superb and frequently hilarious.
The movie has the cleverness of Pulp Fiction without the ugly violence; the characterizations and perceptiveness of Sense and Sensibility while being much more fun; the magic and sense of fun of Star Wars with better acting and a better script. It's one of the best movies I've ever seen.