Shakespeare in Love (1998)

I think it's really challenging to do a film about someone as famous as Shakespeare. It could have always been done better no matter how good it is.

"sofyarozy89" gave this film 9/10. Suspicious as usual, I checked this person's review history and found that he/she has reviewed ~~ you guessed it!! ~~ ONLY this ONE movie. Therefore, be on your guard against 8/10, 9/10, and 10/10 for ANY movie ! This picture is OK, nothing special, slow at times, the guy is not so good, the gal is better. Costumes and scenery lovely. NOT memorable !

Young Will Shakespeare, suffering a bout of writer's block, happens across an intense love and draws inspiration for new material from the whirlwind romance. For a best picture winner, this is awfully mediocre stuff. The plot is simplistic and over-familiar, the acting merely acceptable, and the constant nods and winks to the budding auteur's work quickly grows excessive and wearying. Gwyneth Paltrow and Joseph Fiennes are attractive people and make convincing googly eyes at one another, but their relationship is so swift and passion-fueled that it never feels like more than a fiery seasonal fling. Judi Dench took home a best supporting actress statue for her work as Queen Elizabeth I, though she barely makes a cameo appearance and most of her work seems done by the wardrobe department. Irritatingly blunt at times, particularly when it tries its hand at comedy, I appreciate the freshness of the concept if not its flimsy, dated execution.

Don't be afraid of the word Shakespeare in the title! This movie is not a junior-high history lesson. It's light, funny, romantic, and a totally irreverent look at Elizabethan England.The screenplay is brilliant. The best writing in a movie I've seen this year. The idea is that Shakespeare is not some grave, great poet, but a young guy trying to make his way in the theater. He's written good plays, but nothing truly transcendent. The conceit is that an ill- fated romance--the one great true love of this life-- with a beautiful, smart woman is what inspires him to write his first immortal play: Romeo and Juliet.In this era of world-exploding auctioneers and cookie-cutter Adam Sandler movies, it's rare to see such a specific, ingenious, and inspired story for a film.The best part about this movie is its sense of humor. It plays with history, takes a great man abut whom we know almost nothing, and creates a fantasy about his life that is totally outrageous, funny and real.Also, the movie is really romantic. The costumes are lush, the leads look great and have real chemistry together. I used to think that Gwyneth was overrated, but here she's radiant. And Joe Fiennes has an intensity and a vulnerability, as well as a sense of humor, that I for one find sorely lacking in his older brother Ralph.Needless to say, this is the best date movie of the year. Women take note: I am a red-blooded straight American male, and I loved it. Take your boyfriends to see this movie. It will make up for you forcing them to sit through The Piano.