Film Review: Shakespeare in Love, Academy Award winner, is the perfect definition of what literature in film should be. Set in London of 1593, the star-bedazzled cast presents Will Shakespeare as he desperately seeks love, his muse, and to complete his latest work,
Romeo and Ethel the Pirate's Daughter. The script is full of in-jokes: the more you know of Shakespeare and his time, the more you'll get the movie. Lines from his great plays are strewn throughout the dialog. We meet (an uncredited) Kit Marlowe, a young and vicious John Webster, a Lord Wessex (Thomas Hardy, anyone?). We see the immortal playwright, a skull on his shelf, practicing his signature, writing sonnets, visiting his shrink. Since we know so little of him, the comedic imagining of Shakespeare rings true with only a little suspension of disbelief. He is humanized in
Shakespeare in Love, given a credible life and personality that compels the viewer to keep watching, even while knowing how it all must come out. The audience roots him on. Shakespeare writes his great romantic tragedy scene by scene, even as the play is being rehearsed, the rehearsal of the growing play mirroring the budding romance between Shakespeare and Viola, his love and muse. There is ample humor, adequate swashbuckling, and just enough bawdiness to fit the times. The film's sets, score, and costumes are immaculate, the whole generously textured with perfect detail. The actors, both leads and supporting, are uniformly brilliant, and Judi Dench even more so as Queen Elizabeth. In the end this romantic comedy and tragedy reveals the power and beauty to be found in Shakespeare, and convincingly argues why we continue to read and watch his work after so many centuries.
Shakespeare in Love is a vital film for anyone who appreciates, or wants to appreciate, the genius of William Shakespeare. How did they make this virtually perfect movie? I don't know. It's a mystery. 🐢
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