Review of Shakespeare in Love (1998) by Ben L — 07 Jun 2016

There are a lot of people who call Shakespeare in Love one of the least-deserving best picture winners of all time. Well, despite the negative press, I thought the concept sounded intriguing and it deserved a chance.

I will say that the premise of the film works well for me. The movie is about Shakespeare trying to find a muse, then falling in love with her, and then creating some of his most inspired work. I enjoy when we see a film where life reflects art, and also influences it.

The movie also has a decent sense of humor and an inspired performance from Joseph Fiennes. Where I think it loses me is in the scripting and general execution of the plot. There are too many events that feel like they could only happen in the movies, so it comes across as false.

I'm fully aware that the events in this movie are an intended fabrication, but even in an alternate history the actions of the people have to make sense. The worst of these "Hollywood" moments come basically any time that Queen Elizabeth interacts with the story.

Don't get me wrong, Judi Dench is perfection in the role, but her characters' actions are so convenient and lack any sense of authenticity. She essentially becomes the film's Fairy Godmother, but I never got the impression the movie was supposed to be a fairy tale.

The writers also seem to be so passionately in love with the words of Shakespeare that they insert them constantly which keeps pulling me out of the story. Nothing makes a love scene feel more artificial than verbatim quotes of Romeo & Juliet between kisses.

There are a lot of elements that are successful in Shakespeare in Love, and I can see why its non-offensive script might lead it to a victory over all the heavy war films that competed against it for Best Picture in 1999, but it needed some more polish to be anywhere near the best for me.