"Shakespeare in Love's" break-out success surprised even its production company, Miramax. It has already won three Golden Globes; for Best Actress (Gwyneth Paltrow), Best Screenplay (Tom Stoppard and Marc Norman) and Best Picture. Tuesday, it was nominated for 13 Academy Awards, more than any other picture, including "Saving Private Ryan (11)." And come Oscar night, barring a freak accident, it's bound to take home a couple.
"Shakespeare in Love" has given Shakespeare a sexy makeover. Hollywood is banking on the fact that audiences will be a lot more receptive to Shakespeare's works now that they think the author looks like Joseph Fiennes. Expect to see no less than a half dozen Shakespeare adaptations and modernizations over the next year.
Even Hillary Clinton, immersed in the impeachment trials, went to the New York premiere, her first trip to a movie theater in over five years. Now if Hillary can find the time to see it, so can you. Unlike last year's biggest period romance (I think it was about a ship or something); "Shakespeare in Love" deserves all the hype. Master director John Madden ("Mrs. Brown") has undoubtedly created the best film of 1998.
The year is 1593. Elizabethan theater is in full swing. Joseph Fiennes, the sultry looking younger brother of Ralph Fiennes, plays the young and ambitious Will Shakespeare. Phillip Henslowe (Geoffrey Rush) has hired him to write "Romeo and Ethel-the Pirate's Daughter." Unfortunately, Will seems to have lost his muse. As he tells his apothecary, in a bawdy play on words that the real Shakespeare would appreciate: "It's as if my quill is broken, as if the organ of my imagination is dried up, as if the proud tower of my genius is collapsed."
Enter Viola (Gwyneth Paltrow) -- the luminous young noblewomen and forbidden fruit who stirs Will's loins and his pen. His love for her transforms the play he's writing from a pirate escapade into the icon of romance we know today as "Romeo and Juliet."
In a brilliant tribute to Shakespeare's use of gender swapping in his later plays, Viola, unbeknownst to Will, breaks the cardinal rule of the Elizabethan stage and dresses as a man to win the role of Romeo. The fact that Gwyneth Paltrow was actually dating Ben Affleck, who plays Ned Allyn, (one of the stock company actors and Will's best friend), in real life seems an appropriately Shakespearean twist.
This is no one-dimensional love story. It's well researched and carefully written. In a subplot, it plays upon the rumors that playwright Christopher Marlowe (Rupert Everett) helped to write many of Shakespeare's plays. It incorporates many of Shakespeare's most famous tropes, such as gender swapping, sexual double entendres and a generous helping of self-humor.
The film is littered with comic parallels to modern times. Will's boatman, who ferries him across the Thames, asks him to read his script. Will's coffee mug reads "Souvenir of Stratford-Upon-Avon." He treats his apothecary as a shrink. And Phillip Henslowe is constantly worried about the box office gross and percentage takes of his theater.
Screenwriters Stoppard ("Billy Bathgate") and Marc Norman ("Cutthroat Island") seamlessly intermingle romance with wit and historical authenticity with contemporary humor.
They so artfully weave the original dialogue of "Romeo and Juliet" into their own that it's hard to tell where one ends and the other begins.
The brilliant script is only compounded by amazing performances. The two romantic leads share an electric chemistry. Gwyneth Paltrow seems to radiate off the screen. After a few stumbles ("Perfect Murder" and "Great Expectations"), she finally proves her metal as a bonafide movie star. Joseph Fiennes is not as strong but does a nice job at walking the delicate tightrope of playing a brooding and passionate yet comedic role.
The supporting cast is equally powerful. Judi Dench goes beyond the bounds of acting and seems to actually become Elizabeth I. Geoffrey Rush gives an Oscar worthy performance as the bumbling theater owner. Rupert Everett is appropriately dashing as Christopher Marlowe. Ben Affleck, in his first period piece, takes a stab at himself by playing an egotistical, goatee-wearing actor who prances around the stage of the Rose Theater.
I'm hard pressed to come up with anything bad to say about this film. 1998's bleak cinematic offerings only makes "Shakespeare in Love" more appealing. It has something for everyone; from romance and literature to swashbuckling and murder. Go see it.
