Review of Shakespeare in Love (1998) by Mesh B — 02 Jun 2012

Son of a bitch. I wanted to hate it so bad, but all I could do was enjoy it. I don't know why but I just never understood this movie, and the fact that it trumped Saving Private Ryan for best picture always irked me.

Here's the first thing. I'm a sucker for a GOOD romance/love story. Granted, for me this does not mean the Nicholas Sparks crap. That shit is terrible. Usually good love stories are found as subplots or, in my opinion, good romance movies are just never seen by the public.

This one was solid for I don't understand what reason. Almost absolutely everything in this movie is fictional, which was odd to me. Basing a fictional story but using all real people and settings as your set up, but it works.

I don't know that Judi Dench should have won an Oscar, but she, and the rest of the cast was pretty much perfect (gotta love a little Ben Affleck in a actually good movie). The story was supremely creative, having the balls to make up a story about Shakespeare.

Everything just seems to come together, the acting, the writing, the directing, all the valuable pieces for a good movie, including a true love story. They can be found in just about every movie ever made, but the ones that put them front and center usually suck (except for Titanic.

You're in denial if you say that wasn't a good movie weather you liked it or not). You care about the characters, and therefore you care about the relationship. It's set up too perfectly and played out as if the man himself wrote it.

Which of course he essentially did because we're essentially watching Romeo and Juliet. And a much better version then that one Leo DiCaprio was in. In the end this really is a very, very good movie, and one I know I'll be watching again at some point.