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Shakespeare in
Love
****
Cinema
Releases - January 29, 1999
Rated on a 4-star
scale. USA. Directed by John Madden. Written by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard.
Starring Joseph Fiennes, Gwyneth Paltrow, Geoffrey Rush, Tom Wilkinson, Colin
Firth, Rupert Everett, Martin Clunes, Imelda Staunton, Ben Affleck, Judi
Dench, Simon Callow, Anthony Sher, Mark Williams, Joe
Roberts.
"Not marble, nor the gilded monuments of princes,
shall outlive this powerful rhyme."
Shakespeare said that about his "Sonnet 55", but
he might as well have been referring to "Shakespeare in Love",
a brilliant new film that takes its inspiration from the power of his rhymes.
I declare it one of the best romantic comedies of the decade, and several
of my colleagues have declared it the best film of the year, but don't take
our word for it -- Tom Paulin hated it, using the word "dreadful". If that's
not proof of quality, I don't know what is.
The movie's premise is summed up rather well by
its title, and the love affair helps struggling young Will (Joseph Fiennes)
get over a nasty case of writer's block, to pen "Romeo and Juliet", a title
nicely changed from "Romeo and Ethel The Pirate's Daughter". His real-life
Juliet is Viola De Lesseps (Gwyneth Paltrow), an upper-class girl who is
supposed to be marrying the odious Lord Wessex (Colin Firth), but would much
rather be an actor.
It is not hard to guess that the love story's
structure parallels that of "Romeo and Juliet", but it is hard to guess how
well "Shakespeare in Love" pulls the arrangement off. There is no gimmick
being used here, and whenever scenes in "Shakespeare in Love" mirror moments
from the Bard's more famous tragic love story, the resonance is worthwhile
and involving. Also convincing -- the episodes are far removed enough from
the play's actual content for us to truly believe these things are happening
to the Shakespeare character, and he's really working them into his
script.
Around Shakespeare, as he works, is a plethora
of colourful characters. The ridiculous Henslowe (Geoffrey Rush) is a
rotten-toothed scoundrel who runs the Rose theatre, but has no idea how to
produce Shakespeare's plays, or even pay his own debts. Fennyman (Tom Wilkinson),
is usually the local muscle, but acts like an excited little girl over his
small role as the apothecary in "Romeo". A hilarious portrayal of morbid
playwright John Webster sees him as a kid, a deceitful little brat obsessed
with rats. Judi Dench has some commanding scenes as an ageing Queen Elizabeth,
and more support includes Imelda Staunton as Viola's nurse, Rupert Everett
as Christopher Marlowe, Ben Affleck as loud prima-donna Ned Alleyn and Mark
Williams as an odd, stuttering tailor.
Aside from being a love story and a romp about
Elizabethan theatre, "Shakespeare in Love" also has plenty of metaphoric
satire about the workings of Hollywood. Examples: the 16th-century equivalent
of a cabbie tries to offer a script to Will; the gangster Fennyman becomes
a producing partner with Henslowe; the play gets rehearsed without a finished
script, and with confusion about who's in artistic control; there are constant
stupid suggestions on how to make everything more commercial.
This is all wonderful stuff, and the humour of
"Shakespeare in Love" is standard-setting. Mixing farce, sexual innuendo,
old actors' and writers' in-jokes, puns to do with the situations at hand,
a running joke about the popularity of Christopher Marlowe and everything
I've mentioned in previous paragraphs, it does a better job of cramming sharp
gags into every moment than "Wag the Dog", or even "Annie Hall". Most reviewers
have noted the quality of the screenplay, and as penned by Marc Norman ("Oklahoma
Crude") and Tom Stoppard ("Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead"), yes,
it is well-written. I found the construction of the ending to be especially
shrewd. But in the wrong filmmaker's hands, this same writing could have
come across as drunk on its own intelligence, and seemed terribly smart-arsed,
smarmy or pretentious. The real credit for this movie, therefore, goes to
the director, John Madden, who lets his camera breeze throughout the sets
heedlessly and his actors perform with high energy levels, creating something
joyous and accessible. Romantic, too -- his stroke of genius in making the
movie is to push the love story into the foreground and the banter into the
back. This gives us a true, emotional, serious involvement in the affair
(Viola has a shattering line, with "This is not life, Will... this is a stolen
season."), but also helps the comedy, because it now seems to have more of
an unintentional, incidental, off-hand manner.
Madden, the genius, is aided immeasurably by a
series of able technicians. Cinematographer Richard Greatrex, who also worked
with him on "Mrs. Brown", creates a beautifully warm and colourful look.
The makeup, sets and costumes create a vivid sense of time and place. Composer
Stephen Warbeck doubles the quality of every moment with his sweet score,
which grabs our attention immediately, hums along merrily through the jig
of the film and stays with us when grand emotion comes to bear. And editor
David Gamble pieces the film together in fine, slick, seamless
form.
Madden's cast serves him well, too, because he
controls each player just right, giving them the freedom to do showy work
and yet applying enough restraint on them so that the ensemble piece works,
with nobody trying to steal the show. Having said that, Fiennes and Paltrow
are especially engaging, with the former using the same sexual intensity
he had in "Elizabeth", except for comic effect, and the latter using her
radiant charisma to seduce our attention.
This is a great film, which stands up to multiple
viewings. I've seen it three times, and learned that it is so sweet, endearing
and layered, familiarity only accentuates the charm, energy and passion.
When so many films are nonsensical products of assembly-line cynicism,
"Shakespeare in Love" is a wonder to behold, and to cherish.
COPYRIGHT© 1999 Ian
Waldron-Mantgani
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