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SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE (1998) (****)

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Okay, I'll get it out of the way right from the start — this Oscar winner is not better than fellow nominees SAVING PRIVATE RYAN or even LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL. However, this should not taint how good the film really is. A greatly inspired romantic comedy that ranks up with many of the best of all time, SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE is filled with well-drafted characters and an abundance of witty dialogue. In recent years the romantic comedy has sunk to the bottom of the genre gene pool and this film provides hope that we are not de-evolving into a lesser organism.

Will Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes, ENEMY AT THE GATES) has lost his muse. Rose Theatre owner Philip Henslowe (Geoffrey Rush, SHINE) is in such debt that lender Hugh Fennyman (Tom Wilkinson, IN THE BEDROOM) has the impresario's feet put over hot coals. He demands a crowd-pleasing comedy from Shakespeare — one with a catchy title like "Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate's Daughter." And it has to have a bit with a dog in it — people love funny bits with dogs. Mr. Henslowe's financial woes are not enough to stir the creative juices in the young playwright, however, the beautiful lady Viola De Lesseps (Gwyneth Paltrow, GREAT EXPECTATIONS), the daughter of a wealthy man who has virtually sold her to the financially strapped tobacco baron Lord Wessex (Colin Firth, BRIDGET JONES'S DIARY), is just the inspiration he is looking for. Uninterested in her fiancée, Viola poses as a boy named Thomas Kent so that she can audition for Shakespeare's new play. The playwright is so taken by Kent's honest performance that he demands "him" to return to the theater and star as Romeo.

Before a fortnight, Shakespeare will discover that Kent is really Viola and a passionate affair will begin. Lord Wessex becomes suspicious and is thrown off the correct path when Shakespeare points him in the direction of famed rival playwright Christopher Marlowe (Rupert Everett, MY BEST FRIEND'S WEDDING). Additional help comes from Viola's dedicated nurse (Imelda Staunton, VERA DRAKE). Meanwhile, famed actor Ned Alleyn (Ben Affleck, HOLLYWOODLAND) returns to town and wants a starring role. Is this where appeasing demanding stars started? Other complications will arise especially when the authorities discover the scandalous truth that The Rose has put a woman on the stage. And Queen Elizabeth (Judi Dench, MRS. BROWN) herself will challenge any playwright to capture the true feelings of love on the stage.

Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard's script slyly weaves details of Shakespeare's plays and Elizabethan England over a tight tapestry of modern sensibility. In the beginning of the tale, Shakespeare goes to a soothsayer to lie on the couch and figure out why his member of invention isn't working lately. Shakespeare has a coffee mug with "Souvenir of Stratford-Upon-Avon" on it. A boatman brags about having had Marlowe in his boat and then tries to pawn his script off on Shakespeare to read. General audiences prefer comedies to tragedies now as they did then. However, when they see truth, they are still touched. Within all the hip post-modernism, the writers work in plenty of the bard's best hits. It puts the material in a spotlight and as accessible as funny dog bits.

Bringing the great script, especially the dialogue, to life is a phenomenal cast. Fiennes has never been better than in this career making turn. Did the Academy reward the wrong Queen Elizabeth performance in 1999? I won't discuss that here, because it would take away from Paltrow's wonderful performance as a woman who longs for more than being a bargaining chip in the business affairs of men. She makes us believe that true love can be displayed on the stage, as well as the screen. Dench, in a small role, commands the screen as a person who knows a little something about being a woman in a man's profession. And Rush and Wilkinson serve as a nice comedic duo.

Director John Madden handles the material with the lightest touch. He moves from the contemporary humor to the Shakespearian drama to the genuine love story with ease, never letting one upstage or undermine the other. We get caught up in this film and whisked along on its journey. We understand the characters and feel for their situations, whether it's their professional desires or the desires of their hearts. The best things that the film does are bring fresh light to the work of William Shakespeare, which is too often disregarded as some irrelevant dated play that 9th graders are forced to read, and makes us realize that a feeling, thinking and sometimes lustful man was behind those poetic, and truly heartfelt, words.

Rick DeMott's picture

Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks