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The artist formerly known as Shakespeare >> Shakespeare in Love could use an "it" guy by JULIET WATERS
Don't go to this film expecting insight into Shakespeare's personal life (there isn't enough known about him anyway), or a period piece along the lines of director John Madden's last film, Mrs. Brown. But expect a classic Hollywood-style romantic comedy and a screenplay strong enough to overcome a few problems that threaten to wreck the last half. As the story opens, Will is shopping his latest, Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate's Daughter. But he knows it's bad. He's blocked and his confessor/therapist thinks his problems are sexually rooted. He needs a muse. Enter Lady Viola de Lesseps (Gwyneth Paltrow). Crazy for the theatre--and in particular Shakespeare-- she dresses up as a boy to audition for Romeo. She gets the part, but as Shakespeare starts to fall in love with her, she gradually becomes the inspiration for Juliet--a scenario that results in tons of irony, boys kissing boys who are really girls, and star-crossed lovers. Viola is betrothed to the evil Lord Wessex (Colin Firth) who threatens to whisk her off to his tobacco plantation in Virginia, and Shakespeare is already married. The screenplay by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard (who's done the play-within-a-movie thing before with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead) is the film's greatest strength. But Paltrow is the next best thing. Compared to her sophisticated (but somewhat bloodless) performance in Emma, she adds depth and passion to Viola, and has a screen presence reminiscent of Grace Kelly. But she needs an "it" guy in the role of Shakespeare. Fiennes is competent, sexy and much better than he was in Elizabeth, but when the going gets rough he starts looking like a tortured puppy on Lithium. A dull, heavy musical score doesn't help, nor does the eggplant leather mini suit that only reminds us of his eerie resemblance to the artist formerly known as Prince. To frustrate matters a little more, Paltrow's "it"guy is exiled to the wings. Ben Affleck, as Ned Alleyn, delivers an astonishingly high-calibre performance as the inspiration for Mercutio. His comic timing is dead on and he holds his own among heavyweight supporting performances by Rush, Firth and Judi Dench as Queen Elizabeth. Sure, Affleck is too frat boy to play Shakespeare, and having Hollywood's favourite actor/writer--and Paltrow's real-life boyfriend--play the bard might have pushed things over the top. Then again, is there ever such a thing as too much irony in Shakespeare--or love? Shakespeare in Love opens Friday, December 18
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Elizabethan London is beginning to look a lot like Hollywood in Shakespeare in Love. The young bard (Joseph Fiennes) can't take a simple barge ride without the driver trying to show him a script. Money lenders, the 16th-century version of mobsters, want to be producers. And according to Philip Henslowe (Geoffrey Rush), owner of The Rose theatre, all the public wants is comedy and "a bit with a dog."