playwright tom stoppard and screenwriter marc norman took on an astonishingly difficult task : they wanted to write a script about william shakespeare that parallels shakespeare 's works .
they also wanted to poke fun at the way all of us envision shakespeare : i mean , really , who does n't think of shakespeare as a guy seething with so much passion that he can barely write a play without exploding into a passionate , introspective verbal couplet of iambic pentameter ?
stoppard and norman are men who love shakespeare , and they wanted to make a movie for everyone else who loves shakespeare .
and , despite the difficulty of their task , they have succeeded .
shakespeare in love is one of the smartest , funniest , most touching films of the year .
it 's so rare that a picture with such high aspirations succeeds in all of its endeavors
,
but here we have a movie that defines success : it is at once charmingly acted and flawlessly written .
it could have been a smug , self - important movie that panders to die - hard shakespeare fans , but the appeal of this film is almost universal :
if you 've ever read a play by shakespeare , or know anything about his life , it 's likely that you 'll find grand entertainment in shakespeare in love .
joseph fiennes , brother of ralph , stars as shakespeare himself
; he 's a delightful , irresistible lad , concerned mostly with women and detached from life 's more serious problems ( debt , plague , etc . ) .
he 's commissioned to write plays for various people : queen elizabeth ( judi dench ) wants comedies , while local slimeball philip henslowe ( geoffrey rush ) needs him to write a play so that he can pay off his debts to hugh fennymann ( tom wilkinson ) .
shakespeare , however , has trouble focusing on his work .
he begins work on a comedy about a boy named romeo and a girl named ethel .
this all changes , however , when he meets viola de lesseps ( a radiant gwyneth paltrow ) , a young heiress set to marry the financially - oriented lord wessex ( colin firth ) .
shakespeare instantly falls in love with her ; he first meets her when she pretends to be a man to try out for the part of romeo .
he discovers her identity and confronts her later ; she , of course , falls in love with him , although their love is doomed because she absolutely must marry the tyrannical lord wessex .
but she continues to act because she loves shakespeare 's writing so much , and soon the production ( which later becomes romeo and juliet ) is set to be performed .
shakespeare in love is an amazingly good film , not because it works as great entertainment , but
because it pays attention to detail and knows its subject matter .
i was instantly won over by joseph fiennes in the lead role : he has such searing optimism and energy ; he 's clearly a man who admires shakespeare , and even in the shortcomings that he gives his character ( inability to turn away from women , attention deficit disorder ) , we sense a great deal of affection and care .
he practically overflows with passion in every scene .
fiennes is matched by paltrow ( whose english accent is so good that wonder where she actually comes from ) ; she is an actress who exudes strength and conviction in every performance
i 've seen her in .
the two performers work perfectly together , taking the passionate scenes as far as possible without making them melodramatic , and wringing the comedic scenes for every conceivable laugh .
of course , it does n't hurt that they have a masterful script to work with .
stoppard , whose play rozencrantz and guildenstern are dead inspired an interesting film , is full of dry wit and boundless understated humor ( all of his plays have similarly dry humor ) .
the first intelligent step stoppard and norman took was harmonizing the events of the film with romeo and juliet .
one of the funniest scenes in the film is an imitation of the famous terrace scene from the play ; in the movie , shakespeare is bumbling about while viola is trying to fend off her nurse maid .
director john madden does a fantastic job dabbling in slapstick humor -- scenes like these would have seemed obtuse in the hands of a lesser director .
i 'm going to have to see the movie again ; i 'm certain there are numerous references that i missed .
in fact , i doubt it 's possible to gather everything with just one viewing .
stoppard is a master of detail
: you 'll notice familiar lines placed throughout the film , not as lines of a play , but as dialogue , suggesting that shakespeare simply spoke like that all the time .
there 's also a brilliant running joke in which shakespeare is in constant competition with christopher marlowe ( and
the fact that marlowe is played by the openly - homosexual rupert everett is a joke in of itself ) , proposing a slightly twisted explanation to marlowe 's mysterious death in a pub .
there 's also a scene featuring a wide - eyed dog that is so funny that i hurt myself laughing .
"
there 's no dog in this play ? "
" no ! no dog !
" the ensemble cast is perhaps the strongest this year .
geoffrey rush is nearly unrecognizable as the detestable henslowe ; wilkinson is also hard to recognize , but has a great role as a thug who takes his part as the apothecary so seriously .
ben affleck , playing one of the actors in the company , shows great range , both in his accent ( his is almost as good as paltrow 's ) and in humor ( he has some of the best one - liners in the movie ) .
colin firth , always stuck playing the sap , does a good job being hateful .
judi dench , however , has the best supporting performance as queen elizabeth : rarely has so much depth been conveyed in so few words .
my single , minor complaint about shakespeare in love is that i feel like i could have been more moved by the end .
the story is moving , but there are a few missed opportunities in the final scenes .
but my quibbling is not important .
what is important is that i acknowledge the quality of this picture ,
the sheer skill with which it has been written , acted , and produced .
shakespeare in love tries so many things , and nails every one of them
: it 's a film that both loves shakespeare and makes fun of him , a film in which the actors , writers , and director are all perfectly in sync .
it 's also a movie that has the potential to introduce a lot of people to shakespeare 's work in a positive way , without seeming condescending or superior .
i admire this film not only because it passes so pleasantly , but because it has lofty aspirations and succeeds in them .
not just any film can poke fun at shakespeare and get away with it .
Output: P