REVIEWS

"SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE"

I was never forced to read any Shakespeare in school, so I fell upon the story of "Romeo & Juliet" late in life. My first experience with it was when I saw the modernized Leonardo DiCaprio/Claire Danes version (directed by Baz Luhrmann) a few years ago. Though I was familiar with how it ended, I didn't even know what a "Montague" or a "Capulet" was. Anyway, I thought that version was clever, but I felt as though I needed to see something more faithful to Shakespeare's original work. Without bothering to rent it first, I went out and bought the (letterboxed) 1968 version of "Romeo and Juliet" (directed by Franco Zeffirelli with Leonard Whiting as "Romeo" and Olivia Hussey as "Juliet"). I loved it. I loved everything about it. The performances, the music, the scenery... but more than anything, it was the story that kept me. Even though the modernized version used the same dialogue, it was (obviously) completely different. To this day, the 1968 "Romeo and Juliet" remains one of my favorite movies of all-time. Since then, I've seen it a few more times, and I've read the play a couple of times. It's simply wonderful.

When I went to see "Shakespeare in Love," I didn't really know what to expect. I wasn't very interested in the movie, I saw no trailers, and I didn't know what it was about, but excellent reviews from critics and friends got me interested. What a movie. What a great, great movie. Many of the jokes require the viewer to know "Romeo and Juliet" pretty well, and perhaps even a little bit of "Twelfth Night" (I immediately bought "Twelfth Night" in book form right after I saw the movie), but I think that even those who are clueless on both of those works would enjoy it.

Strangely enough, this movie comes out a few months after "Elizabeth," which is about the rise of Elizabeth I. "Shakespeare in Love" features an older Elizabeth I (this time played by the excellent Judi Dench), and stars Joseph Fiennes as William Shakespeare. He was in "Elizabeth" as the title character's lover. Geoffrey Rush, who was so sinister in "Elizabeth," plays a bumbling theater owner supplying some of the movie's funniest moments in "Shakespeare in Love." Judi Dench, Joseph Fiennes, and Geoffrey Rush were all excellent in their roles, but it's Gwyneth Paltrow's performance as Shakespeare's lover that will be burned in my brain forever. She has quietly impressed me over the last couple of years (especially in "Sliding Doors"), and this performance is truly Oscar-worthy. There are also small roles by Ben Affleck and Rupert Everett, and they make up for the lack of quantity with quality.

"Shakespeare in Love" was written by Marc Norman (who, shockingly enough, wrote "Cutthroat Island") and Tom Stoppard ("The Russia House," "Empire of the Sun," "Brazil," and "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead," which he also directed) and it was directed by John Madden (NOT the football announcer guy, but the director of "Mrs. Brown"). Together, they made a wonderful movie that is impossible not to like.

Scale of 1-10: 10