Product Description

When Will Shakespeare needs passionate inspiration to break a bad case of writer's block, a secret romance with beautiful Lady Viola starts the words flowing like never before.
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: R
Release Date: 3-MAY-2005
Media Type: DVD

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1260 in DVD
• Brand: PALTROW,GWYNETH
• Released on: 1999-12-07
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: AC-3, Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Special Edition, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 122 minutes

Amazon.com
One of the most endearing and intelligent romantic comedies of the '90s, the Oscar-winning Shakespeare in Love is filled with such good will, sunny romance, snappy one-liners, and devilish cleverness that it's absolutely irresistible. With tongue placed firmly in cheek, at its outset the film tracks young Will Shakespeare's overwrought battle with writer's block and the efforts of theater owner Philip Henslowe (Geoffrey Rush, in rare form) to stage Will's latest comedy, Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate's Daughter. Jokey comedy, though, soon takes a backseat to ravishing romance when the beautiful Viola De Lesseps (Gwyneth Paltrow) disguises herself as a young man to wangle herself an audition in the all-male cast, and wins both the part of Romeo and, after much misunderstanding, the playwright's heart. Soon enough, Will's pirate comedy becomes the beautiful, tragic Romeo and Juliet, reflecting the agony and ecstasy of Will and Viola's romance--he's married and she's set to marry the slimy Lord Wessex (Colin Firth) in the near future.

The way that Oscar-winning screenwriters Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard enfold their story within the parameters of Romeo and Juliet (and even Twelfth Night) is nothing short of brilliant--it would take a Shakespearean scholar to dissect the innumerable parallels, oft-quoted lines, plot developments, and thematic borrowings. And most amazingly, Norman and Stoppard haven't forgotten to entertain their audience in addition to riding a Shakespearean roller coaster, with director John Madden (Mrs. Brown) reigning in his huge ensemble with rollicking energy. Along the way there are small gems to be found, including Judi Dench's eight-minute, Oscar-winning turn as a truly regal Queen Elizabeth, but the key element of Shakespeare in Love's success rests on the milky-white shoulders of its two stars. Fiennes, inexplicably overlooked at Oscar time, is a dashing, heartfelt Will, and as for Best Actress winner Paltrow, well, nothing she'd done before could have prepared viewers for how amazing she is here. Breathtakingly beautiful, fiercely intelligent, strong-willed, and lovestruck--it's a performance worthy of Shakespeare in more ways than one. By the film's end, you'll be thoroughly won over--and brushing up your Shakespeare with newfound ardor. --Mark Englehart

From The New Yorker
A ripely emotional comedy-fantasia-concocted by director John Madden and screenwriters Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard-of how Shakespeare came to write "Romeo and Juliet." In 1593, young Will (Joseph Fiennes), a stud with liquid eyes and full lips, is just an unhappy and unproductive hack, jealous of the greater Christopher Marlowe (Rupert Everett). At first the movie comes at us too broadly, with many facetiously anachronistic jokes about the grubby professional routines of the theatre. But Will falls in love with the fictional heiress Viola de Lesseps (Gwyneth Paltrow), and when these two poeticizing lovers climb into bed, and Shakespeare's quill begins to fly, the cleverness catches fire and "Shakespeare in Love" turns into an exciting literary-erotic entertainment. With Geoffrey Rush as the theatre manager Henslowe, Ben Affleck as the egotistical actor Ned Alleyn, Colin Firth as Gwyneth Paltrow's surly aristocratic suitor, and Judi Dench, topping her recent Victoria, as a supremely intelligent and wittily dominating Queen Elizabeth. -David Denby
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Much Ado about Writing
Writing a play is a tiresome burden when you don't have the faintest idea what it is going to be about but you need to hand it over real soon. Fortunately, Will Shakespeare finds his muse and the authors of the screenplay also had at least a brief encounter with theirs.
Basically a romantic comedy SIL offers much more that the standard "boy meets girl, boy loses girl" scenario - they present it in a fantastically well rendered setting taking as much as they could from the Swan of the Avon.
A perfect way to spend an afternoon - you get your share of romance, adventure, and literary history (the latter should not be taken at face value, however). Do you need more?

Another great classic movie
We purchased this for our daughter's birthday because she has said it is a classic. She loves the movie and we are happy that we were able to find it at Amazon.

Intelligently Written and Passionately Acted
Others reviewers have taken issue with how historically inaccurate "Shakespeare in Love" is, and even if they're right on every count, they're missing the point. This movie spins its own story, giving an improbable yet poignant context to Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. It's not meant to be a documentary of the writer's life, nor does it boast that it tells a true story. The most history buffs could expect are a few grins here and there, what with the scene Christopher Marlowe plotting out "Romeo and Ethel the Pirate's Daughter" that nods to the "Shakespeare didn't write his own plays" theory, the inclusion of the sadistic child John Webster, and the many lines of dialogue Shakespeare hears and later incorporates into his plays. These are all quite enjoyable, and should help any uptight history buff to remove the stick etcetera etcetera so they can enjoy this film for what it is.

On the acting side, things are nothing but great. I, for one, hate the institution of "big name actors" and think that most small time television stars do better jobs than your Pitts or Damons, but I really can't complain about Gwyneth Paltrow in this film. She does a wonderful, wonderful job, but it truly serves to compliment the performance of Joseph Fiennes as Shakespeare. He is a force of life on film, giving a passionate, hilarious, and downright sad portrayal of what many people see as the greatest writer in the English language. In my opinion, it would have been impossible to do a better job.

It's an intelligently written and passionately acted film with attention to details in plot and character development that is truly impressive. This is very much worth owning on DVD.

8/10