Way too over-rated.

Rating: 7/10 (12 January 2000)

When this movie came out, I didn't think much of it. I thought it was just some romantic comedy trying to do its best at the box-office. But then it got those thirteen nominations at the Oscars and I started to believe it was pretty good and when I saw Paltrow got a nomination for best actress, I knew she would win. However, I was surprised it beat Saving private Ryan for best picture. Recently, I purchased the movie on DVD and was very disappointed by it. I can't say that, besides Judi Dench who won her Oscar for best supporting actress, it deserved its Oscars for best picture and best actress. It really didn't and Paltrow wasn't that stunning.
The movie takes place in 1593. There were two theatres at that time who were in big competition. One of these was run by a man named Philip Henslowe (Geoffrey Rush in a superb role). Now at that period in time, women were not allowed to play in plays. However, Viola De Lessips (Paltrow), the daughter of a rich man, is in love with plays, especially Shakespeare's (Joseph Fiennes) plays. She is so desperate to act in a play that she finally uses an alias, puts on a mustache, a wig and auditions for the part of Romeo in Shakespeare's new play, Romeo and Ethel which eventually turns out to be Romeo and Juliet. But Viola has been engaged by her father to another rich man called Lord Wessex (Colin Firth) whom she doesn't love at all. Naturally, she is in love with Shakespeare and the problems begin.
Joseph Fiennes was over-looked at the Oscars. I think that instead of giving Paltrow nomination and the Oscar, they should have given the nomination to Fiennes and the best actress Oscar to Cate Blanchett for her role in "Elizabeth". One of the reasons Paltrow won is probably because she is naked quite often in the movie. Of course this is a good movie, but it was definitely not the best picture of the year. Proof is, it isn't the best 1998 movie on our top 250 films list. Judi Dench's and Geoffrey Rush's performances are, however, exceptional. So, once again, this is not a terrible movie but it is not the best movie of 1998 either.