The fictionalized plot revolves around Will Shakespeare's (played by a very dashing Joseph Fiennes, looking infinitely better and more animated than he did in Elizabeth) attempt to finish a play -- tentatively titled "Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate's Daughter," which gives you an idea of the level of humor -- and how his romance with the otherwise-engaged Viola (Gwyneth Paltrow, amazingly non-irritating here) turns the play into the one we all know and love... or at least, had to read in high school.
The script plays off a ton of different in-jokes, everything from the theory that Shakespeare's plays were authored by someone else (one scene features Christopher Marlowe feeding Will the plot for "Romeo") to the Hollywood stereotypes of producers, writers, and stars. Passing characters spout lines that have a familiar ring ("A plague on both their houses!").
Fiennes and Paltrow are both decent, though when Paltrow's character dresses as a boy in order to act in Shakespeare's play, it's one of the least convincing drag acts in film, the Clark Kentian kind of disguise that fools only the other characters in the movie. The real stars are the bit players who don't have nearly enough screen time. Geoffrey Rush (almost done doing penance, as one critic put it, for his histrionics in Shine) is hilarious as the clueless theater owner Henslowe, who insists that all the audience really wants in a play is "love, and a bit with a dog," thereby predicting the success of There's Something About Mary by four centuries. Ben Affleck has a great turn as a pompous actor, as does Dame Judi Dench as Queen Elizabeth. Best of all is Rupert Everett as Marlowe -- when he first appears on screen, I literally gasped for breath -- he's that stunningly gorgeous. And he's got terrific deadpan wit.
Though most of the movie is jokes and wordplay, there are more serious moments. One of my favorite scenes was a lovely dance where Will and Viola meet face to face. Fiennes and Paltrow express wordlessly what it's like to fall in love at first sight, better than I've ever seen in a movie. Fiennes did the same dance in Elizabeth with Cate Blanchett, but this version is infinitely sexier and more tender.
Of course, like R&J, it turns somber at the end, which tends to make the last half hour seem longer than the first 1 1/2, but then again, I'm not much in the mood to sympathize with the troubles of two people who are in love.
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