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Shakespeare in Love: Collector's SeriesRating:
Release Date: 14 January, 2003 Retail Price: $14.99 OUR Price: $10.99 You SAVE: $4.00! Cast: Complete Cast (11 total) |
Shakespeare in Love: Collector's Series Reviews
Shakespeare!
The writing is excellent. It's a simple story. Shakespeare is writing what will become ROMEO AND JULIET and he has a bit of writer's block. Then he falls in love and the words flow. But this simple story allows the writers to interweave "behind the scenes" with their favorite bits of Shakespeare himself. An accurate portrayal of the time in which he wrote, and the fact that he was basically just a working stiff trying to get by. A lot of clever jokes that someone knowledgeable about Shakespeare will enjoy, and far more clever jokes that someone who knows absolutely nothing about the master will also appreciate. Acknowledgement of the theories claiming someone else wrote his plays, and a much subtler rebuttal than I'd give. Exposure to the glorious language that flowed from Shakespeare's pen. The plot is contrived at times, but no more so than a few that Shakespeare himself gave us. This movie is a joy to watch.
Judi Dench as Queen Elizabeth. Of course. If you can think of a better choice, send me an email. Dench has the presence to elevate any role she chooses to take. She also has the unfortunate ability to expose the limitations of several other choices in this film. Joseph Fiennes took his role, that of a young William Shakespeare, seriously. He didn't always have the ability to pull it off, but he gave it his best shot, and there's no shame in that. Gwyneth Paltrow was a terrible choice. I can't watch an obviously stupid person. Oddly, however, she's wholly credible as Romeo.
Oh well. I have other complaints, but they'd probably tell you more about me than about the film, so I'll stop now. It's worth watching more than once, and I can always hope it makes a few more people interested in Shakespeare's writings. This is another reminder that, for all the ink I spend bashing actors, Shakespeare came from them, and many of them still appreciate him.
Allow me to clear up one common misconception about ROMEO AND JULIET, at the risk of repeating the very obvious. It's not a beautiful lovely greatest love story thing. It's about how teenagers who kill themselves over "life's one true love" are stupid.
It was a pleasant surprise to see that Tom Stoppard is one of the writers. Didn't we all enjoy reading ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD back in high school? A little snooping around his bibliography shows me that he won an Oscar for SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE, and that he's been involved in a number of other films I've enjoyed.
Entertaining and educational
I first saw this movie some years ago but only seriously started reading about Shakespeare, his life and times since then. Recently I had the opportunity to see the movie again, this time on DVD. The movie, although an imaginative creation, is well rooted in historical realities. Shakespeare was a commercial artist in commercial theatre, Shakespeare's plays were the popular entertainment of his day, the City of London regularly threatened the 'low brow' theatre entertainment industry with closure, Shakespeare often wrote parts for his favourite actors and his theatre's stars. All these aspects are illustrated in this rollicking screen play. And it leaves us with the question, surely Shakespeare must have been in love to write of love so passionately.
This irreverent production is actually uplifting. Shakespeare was probably the greatest artist of all time, but he wasn't an inhabitant of some ethereal Mount Olympus, he and his work is down to earth. That's what makes him and his work great.
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