The Bard would love this 'Shakespeare'

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By Rene Rodriguez
The Miami Herald
Published: Friday, December 25, 1998


Where did William Shakespeare get his ideas? The makers of Shakespeare
in Love don't claim to know, but they do have a great time
speculating -- especially about his paean to love, Romeo and Juliet.

That might make it sound like Shakespeare in Love would be enjoyed only
by English lit majors -- and, indeed, the more familiar you are with
the Bard, the wittier the ingenious screenplay by Marc Norman and Tom
Stoppard will seem.

But all the homework Shakespeare in Love requires is a passing
familiarity with Romeo and Juliet (just having seen the recent Leonardo
DiCaprio-Claire Danes version is enough for the movie to work its
sublime magic on you).

Set in 1593 London, the film catches the playwright (Joseph Fiennes) as
a rising, but not yet respected, artist on the verge of his great
breakthrough. Theater owner Philip Henslowe (Geoffrey Rush) is leaning
on Will to hurry up and finish his latest "crowd-tickler," so he can pay
off some impatient loan sharks. But Will is suffering with a formidable
case of writer's block: No matter how hard he tries, he can't quite make
his work in progress -- Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate's Daughter -- click.

"I have lost my gift," the distraught writer confesses to his shrink
(they called them "princes of psyche" back then, the movie imagines).
What Will needs is inspiration -- and he finds it in the form of Viola
De Lesseps (Gwyneth Paltrow), a beautiful young woman with a passion for
the arts and a yearning for romance ("I will have poetry in my life, and
adventure, and love, most of all love!" she exclaims).

She's a boy

Viola wants to be an actress at a time when women weren't allowed near a
stage. So she disguises herself as a boy named Thomas to audition for
the role of Romeo, and impresses Will enough to bag the part. Smitten
with the writer, she later introduces herself to him out of male drag,
and he, too, is instantly lovestruck. But what if he discovered his new
lead actor is really a girl?

Director John Madden (Mrs. Brown) has great fun with the gender-bending
stuff (in one Twelfth Night-ish scene, Will confesses his love for Viola
to Thomas, unaware they are the same person). Then, he lets Will learn
the truth, to allow the story to move on to more fertile ground.

Shakespeare in Love wants to show how real life influences the creative
process, using one of the great literary works as its guinea pig. We
see how Will's work is shaped by the most casual conversations
(including one with his rival, Christopher Marlowe, played by Rupert
Everett); by hammy actors demanding more dialogue (like Ben Affleck's
surprisingly funny turn as the Elizabethan superstar Ned Alleyn); by
Viola's penchant for standing on her balcony at night and pining for
her beloved.

Secret romance

Making things difficult for the lovers is the imperious Lord Wessex
(Colin Firth), to whom Viola is betrothed by order of Queen Elizabeth
(Judi Dench) herself. But the need to keep their romance a secret just
makes Will and Viola's passion burn brighter (in one swooningly romantic
scene, they rehearse the play's dialogue while lying in each other's
arms in bed, perfectly aware of how well Romeo and Juliet's longing
mirrors their own.

Paltrow has never been more radiant than she is here, playing the kind
of unimaginably lovely, winsome muse that would inspire a man to write
a masterpiece ("I would not have thought it! There is something better
than a play!" she exclaims after making love to Will for the first
time.)

Fiennes (younger brother of Ralph) plays the budding genius with a
touching vulnerability and a likable haplessness that brings
Shakespeare's mythic aura down to a personable, human level. Together,
they send this wildly creative comedy spiraling into heights so
exhilarating that even the Bard would have given it a standing ovation.
Don't miss it.