Shakespeare in Love (R) *** 1/2 (out of ****)
Directed by John Madden (Mrs. Brown)
Written by Marc Norman (The Aviator) and Tom Stoppard (Rozencrantz and Gildenstern are Dead)
Starring Joseph Finnes (Elizabeth), Gwyneth Paltrow (A Perfect Murder), Ben Affleck (Good Will Hunting), Geoffrey Rush (Shine), Colin Firth (The English Patient)
This Brit-set period romantic comedy had been in the development stages since 1990, with star pairings ranging from the promising (Kenneth Branagh and Winona Ryder, currently displaying a nice rapport in Woody Allen's Celebrity) to the potentially ghastly (Daniel Day-Lewis and...accent-challenged Julia Roberts?!) attached.Shakespeare has now finally arrived onscreen, and, I am glad to report, in the right hands--those of director John Madden and stars Joseph Fiennes and Gwyneth Paltrow.
If Fiennes and Paltrow's charming lead turns
as, respectively, the Bard and Lady Viola, the woman who melts
away his writer's block and inspires Romeo and Juliet, is the
lifeblood of this film, then its vigorous body is the deliciously
witty script by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard, full of great lines
(most delivered by Judi Dench's Queen Elizabeth) and peppered
with intelligent details (sly allusions to Shakespeare's Twelfth
Night).Madden is the film's spirit, coaxing memorable work
from his cast--or, rather, most of his cast (co-star Ben
Affleck is too contemporary to convince as a pompous Elizabethan
stage actor)--and striking a nice blend of light and heavy,
achieving true emotion in its finale. However, the scale is
definitely tipped toward the "light" side, for this
fine film is frothy fun.
Movie Reviews by Michael Delinqua
Movie Reviews starting with "S"
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