Shakespeare In Love (1998) * * *

Directed by:  John Madden

Starring:  Gwyneth Paltrow, Joseph Fiennes, Geoffrey Rush, Judi Dench, Colin Firth, Tom Wilkinson, Ben Affleck, Imelda Staunton, Rupert Everett


Shakespeare In Love won the Oscar for Best Picture in 1998, beating out a superior film in Saving Private Ryan and a very good one in Life Is Beautiful for the honor.     When I saw it then, I thought it was too lightweight and too cute to be considered a better film than the others.    However, upon recent viewing, I realize that the film is lightweight and sometimes cute, but those are virtues rather than hindrances.      I also thought the film suffered from an identity crisis way back when because I had believed it had shifted tones too often.     Upon a second full viewing, I didn't see that either.    There is a scene in the middle in which Shakespeare is guilt-ridden because he believed his life cost someone else his life.    But then that is cleared up and the film continues on its path of high-level romantic comedy, which feels like one Shakespeare himself could've dreamed up.

The film recreates Elizabethan England complete with buckets of slop being tossed out onto streets and barely missing people as they walk by.    Theater owner Phillip Henslowe (Rush) is in debt up to his eyeballs to local businessman (or loan shark) Hugh Fennyman (Wilkinson) and needs to put on a play that will fill the theater and allow him to repay his debts.    He relies on William Shakespeare (Fiennes), a twentysomething writer, to come up with something fast.     Shakespeare, however, is in the middle of his worst-ever case of writer's block.     His new play has a title, "Romeo and Ethel, The Pirate's Daughter", but little else.     He visits a local astrologer to help cure him.     The astrologer asks, "Have you lately been humbled in the act of love?", taking William's comments of "my quill is broken" to a place even he never thought of.

When trying out actors for his still-unfinished play, a young "man" named Thomas Kent auditions and is able to perform exactly as Shakespeare wants it.    Something stirs within him and he follows the man to the De Lesseps' mansion.    The "man" isn't a man at all, but Viola (Paltrow) who has a love for theater and poetry, especially Shakespeare's.    She wants to perform, but in Elizabethan England women were not permitted to perform on stage, so the female parts also had to be played by men.     One question the film sidesteps:   Does he follow Kent because he believes he's such a good actor or is this a sly take on theories that Shakespeare was homosexual, or at least bisexual?    Nonetheless, the fact that the actor is really a woman neatly sidesteps these implications.    Shakespeare is instantly smitten and Viola reciprocates.

Complicating matters is Viola's engagement to the nasty Lord Wessex (Firth), who despite appearances and a noble rank is in debt and arranges a marriage with Viola for the money.    This was not uncommon in 16th century England.   Viola will do as her family wishes, but she carries on a romance with William in the meantime and falls in love.     Viola and William are involved in conversations and situations which he adapts to his play, which is retitled "Romeo and Juliet", including one in which Will speaks to Viola while she is standing on her balcony.

There are numerous further plot complications which are introduced and tidied up, although not necessarily to everyone's satisfaction.     The film follows Henslowe's philosophy of how theater works, "Somehow it all works out in the end.   I don't know how, it's a mystery."     I enjoyed the zeal of the performances.     Everyone is having a good time.     Paltrow pulls double duty as Viola and Kent, in which she is a woman pretending to be a man.     She is very well suited to this material and it won her an Oscar for Best Actress.     Fiennes is intense and passionate as Shakespeare, although at times his eyes look like fireballs are going to emerge from them.      Rush has the most comedic role as Henslowe, who doesn't think Romeo and Juliet will develop into much of a comedy.    After hearing about the poisonings which take place in the play's final scene, he says, "That will leave 'em rolling in the aisles."   

Judi Dench also won an Oscar for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth and she is appropriately regal even during her limited screen time.     She is sublimely aware of Viola's love for Shakespeare despite her engagement to Wessex, whom she doesn't seem fond of.     Firth's Lord Wessex is the type of dastardly guy who in another movie would be dumped at the end, but such a thing didn't happen much then.     Marriages were more economic contracts than declarations of eternal love. 

What we have is a comedy with lots of sly in-jokes and observations of Shakespeare.     You may have to read about the rumors before committing to watching Shakespeare In Love, but even though it isn't altogether deep, it's challenging and original.     The ending also works because it flies in the face of convention and not everyone gets the happy ending he or she deserves.