Review of Shakespeare in Love (1998) by Jake W — 15 Dec 2010

Pretty good film. The cast was spot-on, the directing was great, and the script was pretty good... even though it's pretty basic and formulaic.

Long (and somewhat complex for a romantic-comedy) story short, William Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes, who deserved a Best Actor nomination) has writer's block. A noblewoman named Fiona (Gwyneth Paltrow, who gave a better performance than what I had expected) wishes to act, but the times are prejudiced and do not allow women to act. She dresses as a man and acts in Shakespeare's new play that he writes as he goes along. She is betrothed to a man (Colin Firth) who wishes to marry her only for her family's money. And I'm not too sure how they work her in, but Queen Elizabeth I (Judi Dench, in a scene-stealing but mildly overrated performance) plays a key part in the film. Of course, that's a very brief overview of the film...

Liek I said, it's a pretty good movie. The cast is great: everyone does great with their roles. Geoffrey Rush did good, but I don't know how he got Oscar-nominated for it. Gwyneth Paltrow played Fiona extremely well. I can understand why people didn't liek her winning, but at the same time, it's not a bad performance at all. Joseph Fiennes was as good as Paltrow (if not better), displaying tons of emotion as the troubled Shakespeare. Judi Dench did really good with her scenes, even though her Oscar was more of a career win in my opinion.

The writing for the film is nothing to ignore either. An intriguing plot and tons of Shakespeare references keep things moving along. However, it's not the most original screenplay in the world either: it's basically a re-write of Romeo and Juliet. I also didn't care for the ending, but I'm not gonna downgrade the film for the ending because it was surprising and intriguing at the same time.

Overall, good movie. Great cast, good directing, and pretty good (but not the most original) writing. Recommended to those who liek period pieces.