playwright tom stoppard and screenwriter marc norman took on an astonishingly difficult task : they wanted to write a script about william shakespeare that parallels shakespeare's works . they also wanted to poke fun at the way all of us envision shakespeare : i mean , really , who doesn't think of shakespeare as a guy seething with so much passion that he can barely write a play without exploding into a passionate , introspective verbal couplet of iambic pentameter ? stoppard and norman are men who love shakespeare , and they wanted to make a movie for everyone else who loves shakespeare . and , despite the difficulty of their task , they have succeeded . shakespeare in love is one of the smartest , funniest , most touching films of the year . it's so rare that a picture with such high aspirations succeeds in all of its endeavors , but here we have a movie that defines success : it is at once charmingly acted and flawlessly written . it could have been a smug , self-important movie that panders to die-hard shakespeare fans , but the appeal of this film is almost universal : if you've ever read a play by shakespeare , or know anything about his life , it's likely that you'll find grand entertainment in shakespeare in love . joseph fiennes , brother of ralph , stars as shakespeare himself ; he's a delightful , irresistible lad , concerned mostly with women and detached from life's more serious problems ( debt , plague , etc . ) . he's commissioned to write plays for various people : queen elizabeth ( judi dench ) wants comedies , while local slimeball philip henslowe ( geoffrey rush ) needs him to write a play so that he can pay off his debts to hugh fennymann ( tom wilkinson ) . shakespeare , however , has trouble focusing on his work . he begins work on a comedy about a boy named romeo and a girl named ethel . this all changes , however , when he meets viola de lesseps ( a radiant gwyneth paltrow ) , a young heiress set to marry the financially-oriented lord wessex ( colin firth ) . shakespeare instantly falls in love with her ; he first meets her when she pretends to be a man to try out for the part of romeo . he discovers her identity and confronts her later ; she , of course , falls in love with him , although their love is doomed because she absolutely must marry the tyrannical lord wessex . but she continues to act because she loves shakespeare's writing so much , and soon the production ( which later becomes romeo and juliet ) is set to be performed . shakespeare in love is an amazingly good film , not because it works as great entertainment , but because it pays attention to detail and knows its subject matter . i was instantly won over by joseph fiennes in the lead role : he has such searing optimism and energy ; he's clearly a man who admires shakespeare , and even in the shortcomings that he gives his character ( inability to turn away from women , attention deficit disorder ) , we sense a great deal of affection and care . he practically overflows with passion in every scene . fiennes is matched by paltrow ( whose english accent is so good that wonder where she actually comes from ) ; she is an actress who exudes strength and conviction in every performance i've seen her in . the two performers work perfectly together , taking the passionate scenes as far as possible without making them melodramatic , and wringing the comedic scenes for every conceivable laugh . of course , it doesn't hurt that they have a masterful script to work with . stoppard , whose play rozencrantz and guildenstern are dead inspired an interesting film , is full of dry wit and boundless understated humor ( all of his plays have similarly dry humor ) . the first intelligent step stoppard and norman took was harmonizing the events of the film with romeo and juliet . one of the funniest scenes in the film is an imitation of the famous terrace scene from the play ; in the movie , shakespeare is bumbling about while viola is trying to fend off her nurse maid . director john madden does a fantastic job dabbling in slapstick humor -- scenes like these would have seemed obtuse in the hands of a lesser director . i'm going to have to see the movie again ; i'm certain there are numerous references that i missed . in fact , i doubt it's possible to gather everything with just one viewing . stoppard is a master of detail : you'll notice familiar lines placed throughout the film , not as lines of a play , but as dialogue , suggesting that shakespeare simply spoke like that all the time . there's also a brilliant running joke in which shakespeare is in constant competition with christopher marlowe ( and the fact that marlowe is played by the openly-homosexual rupert everett is a joke in of itself ) , proposing a slightly twisted explanation to marlowe's mysterious death in a pub . there's also a scene featuring a wide-eyed dog that is so funny that i hurt myself laughing . " there's no dog in this play ? " " no ! no dog ! " the ensemble cast is perhaps the strongest this year . geoffrey rush is nearly unrecognizable as the detestable henslowe ; wilkinson is also hard to recognize , but has a great role as a thug who takes his part as the apothecary so seriously . ben affleck , playing one of the actors in the company , shows great range , both in his accent ( his is almost as good as paltrow's ) and in humor ( he has some of the best one-liners in the movie ) . colin firth , always stuck playing the sap , does a good job being hateful . judi dench , however , has the best supporting performance as queen elizabeth : rarely has so much depth been conveyed in so few words . my single , minor complaint about shakespeare in love is that i feel like i could have been more moved by the end . the story is moving , but there are a few missed opportunities in the final scenes . but my quibbling is not important . what is important is that i acknowledge the quality of this picture , the sheer skill with which it has been written , acted , and produced . shakespeare in love tries so many things , and nails every one of them : it's a film that both loves shakespeare and makes fun of him , a film in which the actors , writers , and director are all perfectly in sync . it's also a movie that has the potential to introduce a lot of people to shakespeare's work in a positive way , without seeming condescending or superior . i admire this film not only because it passes so pleasantly , but because it has lofty aspirations and succeeds in them . not just any film can poke fun at shakespeare and get away with it .
