Rating: 
Summary: A golden film
Review: Shakespeare in Love is a film for anyone who loves art and literature
with a passion. Aside from being a beautiful love story, the film
itself is a "love letter" to the arts. I can only describe
it as a "golden" film, because that's what I think of when I
picture scenes from the movie...pure gold. I love Shakespeare, and
the brilliant screenplay manages to make a flesh and blood person out
of such an enigmatic historical figure - it may not be real, but it's
a lot of fun nonetheless. The acting is superb - Gwyneth Paltrow is
glorious, Judi Dench is fabulous, Geoffrey Rush is hilarious, and
Joseph Fiennes is the hottest thing to come along since his older
brother! I love the ending especially - Twelfth Night is my favorite
Shakespearean play, and the last line just speaks volumes: "For
she will be my heroine for all time, and her name will be Viola."
Perhaps the best thing about the film is the way it blends comedy and
tragedy together in such a bittersweet way. One final note: I too
was surprised that this film won Best Picture, because I also loved
Saving Private Ryan. Both films were cinematic masterpieces of very
different kinds, and both were equally worthy. I'm glad the Academy
shook things up a little.bfounded while the final credits rolled. Marc
Norman and Tom Stoppard must have loved their subject matter,
researched the period with zeal as well as having the ability to
create a moving romantic drama.
The whole thing was created
out of the barest glimmer of fact concerning Shakespeare's life. It
focuses on the gap between his marriage in London as a young man and
his eventual return to London as a successful playwright. The theory
states that "suffering is the mother of creativity", so
Young William must have had a great deal of hardship indeed. Hence,
the opportunity for a wonderful movie to be made.
A handsome
young Shakespeare is introduced to us during a black period of
writer's block. He is portrayed as any other writer we could imagine;
poor, horny, suffering from professional jealousy and not particularly
respectable. He's over-committed to two theatres and selling vaporware
for all he's worth. Poorly named vaporware at that, "Romeo and
Ethyl the Pirate's Daughter".
But fate has more in store
for this hopeful scribbler than even he would dream. Enter stage left,
the love of his life, in the guise of an actor, shyly auditioning for
a part in his new play. (Shades of Blackadder here). He is immediately
taken by this youthfull stage strutter because of a seeming preference
for Bill's work over that of the leading playwright of the day,
Christopher Marlowe.
This interest takes him to the actor's
home, where Tomas Kent transforms himself into Viola De Lesseps the
refined daughter of a wealthy merchant. This magic act is only
possible because of the artful protection offered by Viola's nurse and
part time confidant, played by Imelda Staunton. And as with Clarke
Kent, no one can penetrate the cunning disguise of Mr Thomas Kent,
except for a friendly ferryman. And it is this very ferryman that puts
William on the right path in his pursuit of the lady Viola.
And so we get the privilege of watching William Shakespeare give
birth to the Famous Romeo and Juliet as a counterpoint to his torrid
and dangerous affair with a woman betrothed to Lord Wessex; one of the
most influential and powerful men in the city. The ups and downs, ins
and outs of this relationship, and its eventual end, are all
delightful to watch as well as being grist for the mill of
Shakespeare's future plays.
For anyone that has even a passing
familiarity with the Bard's work or just likes a good romance, take
the time to enjoy this special movie. In fact, take a few times
because it gets better with every viewing.
Rating:
Summary: Rush in an unforgettable role
Review: Although Geoffrey Rush is not the star of the film, he delivers a memorable performance, as usual. Fiennes does, also. The costuming is very beautiful, and the humour is delightful. Highly reccommended.
Rating:
Summary: Top-Ten Romance, and One of the Most Clever Screenplays!
Review: "Shakespeare in Love" is a triumph, pure and simple. With screenwriters Tom Stoppard and Marc Norman at the top of their game and feeding immortal lines to a top-notch cast, "Shakespeare in Love" could not fail to succeed. The film opens with young Will Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes) struggling with writer's block . . . he is clearly not yet the magnificent WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (insert trumpets here), the world's most famous writer. Indeed, the top playwright of the age is Kit Marlowe (Rupert Everett), as Shakespeare is reminded several times. And young Will is also hopelessly infatuated with Rosaline, a woman completely unworthy of his affections. After some psychotherapy that anticipates Freud, Will is no better. Still, heavily in debt, Will attempts to stage his next opus, "Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate's Daughter." Working with Henslowe (Geoffrey Rush, who would have stolen a lesser film with his perfect performance), who's also heavily in debt, Will seems headed for disaster. That is, until he sees his muse, young Viola de Lesseps (Gwyneth Paltrow, never better). Smitten, young Will begins to write the romantic poetry that becomes "Romeo and Juliet." Viola, who recognizes Will's genius, meets Will through some classic Shakespearean disguises and mistaken identities. Of course, Viola is betrothed to a true slug, Lord Wessex (a plump Colin Firth), who plans to take her to Virginia in seek his fortune across the sea -- essentially sending her into exile. Despite the roadblocks, Will and Viola are soon hopelessly in love. Viola, daring to breach the silly rule that only men can play parts on stage, has taken the role of Romeo by day. By night, Will and Viola write Will's most romantic play together. "SIL" keeps the wheels turning mighty fast, and one of the joys of watching this movie over and over is catching a quick joke that you didn't get the first time around. It's also a pleasure to watch this stellar cast go through its paces. While Judi Dench won her Oscar for her surprisingly brief performance as Queen Elizabeth, other actors turn in equally entertaining performances. Tom Wilkinson, Simon Callow, Martin Clunes, and Imelda Staunton each bring amazing proficiency to the supporting cast, and even the much-maligned appearance of Ben Affleck elevates the movie -- he is perfectly cast as a self-absorbed theater star (first line -- "What is the play, and what is my part?"). Affleck's comeuppance, when he realizes that he, as Mercutio, doesn't have the title role, is handled wonderfully well. This is simply a movie that doesn't miss a trick. The film is shot beautifully, the extravagent costuming gets at the ridiculous conformity that we associate with jolly old England (and makes the torrid romance of Will and Viola that much more intimate), and the music is uplifting. The film's final shot, as Viola walks along the beach and we realize that we've just seen the birth of arguably Shakespeare's greatest heroine, Viola of "Twelfth Night," is a masterpiece of powerful understatement. This movie is simply a must for the film library!
Rating:
Summary: A GOOFY YET DELICIOUSLY SEDUCTIVE ROMANTIC COMEDY!
Review: The DVD casing claimed in big bold letters "Best Screenplay" Academy Award winner. I can surely see why! Must have been some deviously creative team that crafted this crisp comic period-piece. The film is really two love stories: one a bawdy romance between two smitten humans, and the other an ode to the art of theatre. The writers'/director's love for showmanship is loud and evident throughout the brilliant screenplay, and if you're a fan of wordplay in any way, well then this is a surefire delight. Both Paltrow and Fienners turn in lusciously romantic performances in their respective roles -- she pulls off the formidable order of gender-switching without a hitch, and he has just the right pitches and patterns for a young, struggling Shakespeare. Geoffrey Rush is magnetic as usual. Don't be fooled by the Elizabethan accoutrements, this film and its arsenal of laconic quips could easily shoot several contemporary romances to dust. Buy this one in fact, don't just rent, it quite comfortably stands the test of more than one viewing..
Rating:
Summary: The other sight!
Review:
This is a delightful who demands from you to be prepared for a prime time with a superb script plenty of humor, fineness and radiant freshness around certain Shakesperian insights. You may consider this film in musical language as set of Symphonic Variations in which Gwyneth Paltrow gave her best portrait to date.
A tour de force film with all the magnificence of the Great British tradition.
Rating: 
Summary: Who doesn't love Romeo & Juliet?
Review: Especially when it's a tongue in cheek movie such as this one. I've seen this quite a few times, as I had the *cough* video before this. And now I have the DVD! Very happy. This was never meant to be a serious look at Shakespeare's life, so if you're looking for a biographical movie about his life, don't choose this one unless you have a sense of humour.
This is one of the movies I didn't need to switch my brain on for - not that I ever do - except to spot the obvious references to Hamlet, Twelfth Night, and just to be glaringly obvious, Romeo & Juliet. It's full of fun, and Gwyneth Paltrow repeatedly going topless. I bet she's got it written into her contracts now, that she won't be doing anymore of that now she's a mum. They're not that much to write home about anyway. And the lovely lovely (so much so it needs to be said twice) Joseph Fiennes. I don't like his brother however, but Joseph - he's got nice eyes.
There's a whole host of great actors in this, including Geoffrey Rush (who got on my nerves), Judi Dench (utterly fabulous), Martin Clunes, Imelda Staunton, Colin Firth, Ben Affleck (woooooooooo!), Rupert Everett and also look out for one of the girls from EastEnders (UK show), Lucy Speed, who used to play Natalie, credited ever so nicely as "Second Whore". Some of the roles, however, could have been played by Kenneth Branagh, Winona Ryder, Julia Roberts, Daniel Day-Lewis, Jodie Foster and Meg Ryan.
In the beginning of the movie, when Henslowe asks Will if he has been working on his play, and Will answers "Doubt thou the stars are fire, Doubt that the sun doth move" he is quoting from Hamlet (Act II Scene 2). The lines are from a letter he wrote to Ophelia while pretending to have gone mad, and are followed by "Doubt truth to be a liar, but never doubt I love." The scene that show a woman (presumably Viola) nearly drowning in a shipwreck is a direct homage to one of the opening scenes of Twelfth Night: Or What You Will, in which the character of Viola nearly drowns. The priest near the beginning yells "a plague on both your houses", a famous quote from Romeo and Juliet.
There is no need to be afraid of a movie that has something to do with Shakespeare. This is one of the great films, along with 10 Things I Hate About You, that is based around Shakespeare plays - I still can't quite sit through Baz Luhrman's Romeo & Juliet however, it's just too Shakespeare sometimes. We used to do Shakespeare all the time in English at school, and every one of us girls used to have to read Juliet's lines, and every one of the guys had to read Romeo's. Boy, did we ever dread being paired up against a god-awful guy, and the endless immature teasing which came afterwards. This is a great movie, and well worth getting. The extras are awfully tedious, and not really worth blethering about. So I won't.
Rating:
Summary: Treasure this masterpiece!
Review: I was enthralled from the very start of the movie to the very end as I watched through it. Joseph Fiennes plays a young Shakespeare, struggling to make ends meet and suffering from a bad case of writer's block. Geoffrey Rush plays Henslow, the owner of the Rose theatre, also struggling to make ends meet. Shakespeare has promised Henslow a comedy - "Romeo and Ethel, The Pirate's Daughter", but the creative juices are stagnant.
Viola (Gwyneth Paltrow) is a young, affluent woman who loves the theatre dearly, and pines to be an actress. The problem is, in Elizabethan England, women were not allowed onto the theatrical stage as it was considered an act of public lewdness. Viola disguises herself as a man, Thomas Kent, and auditions for Romeo and Ethel. Shakespeare quickly recognizes a great actor when he hears her, and pursues her, not realizing just who she is. He arrives at her estate, and sneaks in. He sees Viola as herself, not recognizing her out of disguise, and is smitten with her beauty, falling head-over-heels in love. The only problem is that she is betrothed to Lord Wessex (Colin Firth), a man she does not love.
For those of you who are in the least familiar with Romeo and Juliet, you will quickly begin to realize the basic premise of this movie. Shakespeare is a young, poor and fledgling writer with no particular reputation, writing plays based around his life experiences. It is an intriguing concept, and one which works wonderfully well on several levels. There is drama, comedy, passion and tragedy aplenty on offer here. This is deeply moving material, and movie-making at its very best, with wonderful production design, superb costuming, great music and wonderful cinematography. Like a fine red wine, this is a movie to be treasured and savoured.
Rating:
Summary: Everythig is beautiful!!!
Review: I watched this movie again and again because this film became one of my favorite. The story was well organized, very dramatic in a good way. Everythig in this movie is beautiful!!!! Fancinated dearly, I felt my heart beating fast as if I had fallen in love. The music , actors, motion picture, structure, outfits are amazingly amazingly beautiful!!
Rating: 
Summary: Very good screenplay and cast, tepid otherwise
Review: John Madden's Shakespeare in Love has a outstanding cast. When I first watched it in the theatre I enjoyed it immensly. Some of the actors turned out very good performances, this included Geoffery Rush and Judi Dench. However, the overall movie did not have a captivating effect. I am not comparing it with any other movie. I am not implying that it is better or worse than other movies of the year, but it certainly was a travesty on the bard. While it had clever dialogues, Gweneth Paltrowe's role was overplayed. A lot of good actors such as Simon Callow were not used well. Judi Dench was also used sparingly. I used to be a fan of Miramax but this film brought it down. The whole oscars was a travesty. This film may have deserved costumes, screenplay, but did not deserve actress, picture. Neither would Saving Private Ryan though. It is sad that actresses of mediocre talent get recongnized over and over again while actresses such as Cate Blanchatt get overlooked. Gweneth Paltrowe has almost disappeared from the scene of serious acting. Instead the academy recognizes people such as Julia Roberts, Halle Berry, Helen Hunt, all of whom have disappeared from any real acting. Good acting by serious actresses is recognized now and then by people such as Jodie Foster, Emma Thompson, but these others actresses cannot hold a candle to two mentioned. This movie cannot be watched multiple times and is certainly not worth buying. I would suggest people to read the play, that is more captivating.
Rating:
Summary: I love it
Review: Oh, the plot is good. Paltrow, is great and Judy Dench is great. Even Ben Affleck is great - he's cast as an egocentric twit, so he brings all the right skills to the role.
What I really like is all the little side-comments, somtimes when Will hears an odd phrase as he passes through the marketplace. They are the phrases that eventually build up into his scripts. To see this movie, you'd think that all his finest lines were stolen. Well, so be it. The finest craftsman takes the greatest pride in the quality of the material that he steals.
The 'confession' is wonderful, a workable analogy to modern psycotherapy. Dench is wonderful as Elizabeth, esp. in the final ten minutes or so. The nurse/maid (Imelda Staunton) is a quiet favorite - she serves her lady well, even when she might prefer not to.
Paltrow is lovely and catches the cadence of Elizabethan language well, even in the hottest scenes of played passion. There are a few moments, however, when it really looks as of Paltrow has implants and that they are squeezed badly out of shape by the flat-fronted costumes. I prefer the natural figures, even if there's less of them.
The movie, as a whole works. But why? "It's a mystery."
//wiredweird
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