Shakespeare in Love

I just finished a book called The List of 7 by Mark Frost. Its protagonist is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the man who created Sherlock Holmes, and in this story Doyle is actually Watson to a Secret Service man on the hunt for his wicked brother. I found that a very clever concept, taking a person who only wrote murder mysteries and putting them smack in the middle of one. The same can be said for Shakespeare in Love, a very clever, funny and heartwrenching story about the Bard finding his muse in an upper class beauty he could never have. For people who find period pieces stuffy and boring, this is your movie. For people who adore Shakespeare (paying attention, Laura?), this is your movie as well.

The movie begins with two theater houses battling it out for the audience share. Playing both sides against the middle is Will Shakespeare, (Joseph Fiennes, who bears some similarity to brother Ralph but not in a Baldwinian way) an up and coming playwright who's taking money from both theaters for plays he has yet to write. What he's not telling either side is that he has a major case of writer's block. He owes a story to the owner of the Rose theater, Phillip Henslowe (Geoffrey Rush), who owes some back debts to local shylocks and needs a hit, and fast. Will comes up with the idea of a comedy called Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate's Daughter. But that's all he has, a title. Enter Viola De Lesseps (the stunning Gwyneth Paltrow, doing yet another spot on English accent), an heiress who's mad about the theater and Will's writing. Since the theater was still strictly men only, Viola decides to dress in drag and audition for a part in Will's new play, calling herself Thomas Kent. Will's blown away by her, but when he asks her to take off her hat, she runs away. He tracks "Thomas" down to her estate, and there he meets Viola sans mustache, and is instantly smitten. His writer's block is gone, but now he has a bigger problem. He's in love with an heiress set to marry Lord Wessex (Colin Firth), but has no idea she's also the lead in his new play. This is where it gets fun, as the "comedy" Romeo and Ethel starts mirrorring his own life and takes a rather dramatic turn.

Give this movie the Oscar for Best Screenplay. The dialogue is snappy without being pretentious, the story is very intricately woven (so intricate I'm having trouble creating a plot synopsis for it) and it forced the cast to raise everything up a notch. The acting is fantastic; Fiennes did a good job playing Shakespeare as a human, meaning that he also showed the Bard's tendency to "borrow" major story ideas from other writers like Christopher Marlowe (an unbilled Rupert Everett) and throw hissy fits at lesser actors (though he better watch that blank stare he used every time he saw Viola, or he's going to be the next Andrew McCarthy). Paltrow is simply radiant as Viola, and just earned a spot on my Best Argument for Cloning list, next to Catherine Zeta Jones and Ashley Judd (more on that with my soon to be written Best of '98 list, which I hope I can finish before June).

The two most pleasant surprises for me were supporting bits, however. Ben Affleck, Paltrow's current boyfriend and official candidate for Luckiest Dumbass on the Planet, turns in a great performance as Ned Alleyn, a very popular local actor who's quite full of himself. It was a brave move for him to take this role, as it may have spelled disaster for his career if he didn't pull it off. But pull it off he did. Still, even he pales in comparison to the incredibly intimidating Judi Dench, playing Queen Elizabeth with more balls than the entire cast of Romeo and Ethel combined. She's on screen for maybe five to seven minutes, but I'll wager that she gets a nod for Supporting Actress.

It was sub zero and falling as Deb and I left the house to go see this. The whole way to the train I kept saying "Why exactly did we leave the house when we could be home watching football?" As soon as the movie started, I knew exactly why we left the house, to see one of the best movies of the year, and the best romantic comedy I've seen in a long time. For those guys who still haven't paid their girlfriends back for dragging them to see Armageddon, this is the movie you should use to settle the score. She's going to love it, and odds are, you will, too. Hey, it's got sex, swordplay, and Gwyneth. What more do you want?