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