Shakespeare In LoveShakespeare In Love
Set in 1593, when our well known Will Shakespeare is almost at his most popular. But one thing is standing in his way of achieving true fame, writers block. That not begin enough, he has to have a play completed and rehearsed for opening night in three short weeks. Making him a little agitated and making his medieval psychiatrist very wealthy.
For the beginning of the film, Shakespeare is trying sell unwritten scripts to two theatres, the Curtain Theatre, (which is an upper class, sophisticated establishment, that the queen herself enjoys visiting. Here the best actor in all of England does business, Charles Baggage (Clunes).) and The Rose theatre, which is on the verge of begin torn apart and sold for scrap because it is so deeply in dept.
The main reason why Shakespeare is suffering from writers block is because he hasn't found a women that will make him feel so strongly that he will be inspired to write the sonnets and plays. Plays, which at some time or another have been shovelled down all our throughs. But that all changes when he spots the lovely theatre-buff Viola (Palthrow). He follows her home and as in everything Shakespearean, they quickly fall in love. The problem is she is to marry the dastardly Lord Wessex. Ahh! There always has to be a catch doesn't there?. Now, as I said Viola loves theatre and she wishes to try her hand at acting and, as it turns out she does a good Leonardo De Caprio impression and gets the part as Romeo. And as can guess, many comedic situations occur.
There is a moment in this film that symbolises just one of the aspects of this film that made it great for me. The streets are filled with people all bustling madly in one direction, and that is to the Curtain theatre, where the long and eagerly awaited first performance of Romeo and Juliet will be held. The camera shows us a shot of the scurrying crowd, slowly it pans up along, as if to travel with it. But right in the middle of the shot, something seams to be wrong, something is amiss. There is this guy who is not going to the Rose. He is going someplace else, he is going work, or going home, or going to murder someone, and he really is struggling to do just that because of the crowd. It was only a split-second but I thought it was great. And the great thing about this film is just that, the very tinniest of characters have each been given some sort of rich and colourful existence that gives them such a sense of fun.
I love films about the goings on behind the stage, I think they are great. They seem to capture the over exaggerated classic romance comedy and drama of the 40's. And this film does all of that for me and some more.
Before I being to forget hats off to the likes of Judi Dench, Ben Affleck and Rupert Everett for their in the cameo roles, we should have seen more of them.
And Shakespeare himself, before we see the film we all wonder what he will be like, all we were defianiate about is that he was a romantic and a depressive. And what we get is a guy who would fit perfectly into the 80's and 90's . This guy is a conman, vain and disloyal. But he also is a great romantic and courageous. Let's just say that he is pure Shakespeare. And all of this is handled expertly by the newcomer Joseph Fiennes. The guy just made sense to me.
Art imitating life is a major factor in this film. And it is a major factor because that is what art is, it is an artist reacting to the world around him, the world begin the physical world and their own spiritual world, it is how Joyce wrote "A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young", how Dickenson managed to make us all depressed and how Romeo and Ethel the pirates daughter became Romeo and Juliet. The play is Shakespeare. He has three weeks to write a play and turns what would be a "dear diary" into a tragic play.
But I'm raving too much and it's time I should find something to criticise. And there is something wrong, I to say it but I must (deep breath). Its Gwyneth Paltrow. Okay, there I said it, are you happy now…. Well are Ya!!!!. So, there was something wrong with her. She just seemed to be in awe of everything that was happening around her, when in actual fact her character was taking some seriously bold steps. Like joining the play and risking imprisonment in the 16th century was in my books pretty damn courageous. But should we nit pick over such pure enjoyment. Well???
How about the rest of those wonder full characters. Almost all are comedic. Geoffrey Rushs owner of the really sad theatre is great. But what is classic is the loan collector who we see first when he is torturing Geoffrey Rush over twenty pounds. He is threatening to tear the theatre down and over 3 weeks of watching the rehearsals of his investment, he becomes a true lover of the art, see it for yourself.
Brilliant.
So if your feeling a like life's a bitch like my own Oola Boy, then go and see this film. And if you're not, go see it anyway. Why? Because I told you to.
