Triumphant winner of 7 Academy Awards — including Best Picture — this witty, sexy smash features Oscar(R)-winning Best Actress Gwyneth Paltrow (SLIDING DOORS, THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS) and an amazing cast that includes Academy Award-winners Judi Dench (Best Supporting Actress), Geoffrey Rush (Best Actor — SHINE), and Ben Affleck (GOOD WILL HUNTING, PEARL HARBOR). When Will Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes — ELIZABETH) needs passionate inspiration to break a bad case of writer’s block, a secret romance with the beautiful Lady Viola (Paltrow) starts the words flowing like never before! There are just two things he’ll have to learn about his new love: not only is she promised to marry someone else, but she’s successfully impersonating a man in order to play the lead in Will’s latest production! A truly can’t-miss motion picture event with outstanding critical acclaim to match its impressive collection of major awards — everyone will love this funny behind-the-scenes look at the writing of the greatest love story ever told!
There is a boatman in “Shakespeare in Love” who ferries Shakespeare across the Thames while bragging, “I had Christopher Marlowe in my boat once.” As Shakespeare steps ashore, the boatman tries to give him a script to read. The contemporary feel of the humor (like Shakespeare’s coffee mug, inscribed “Souvenir of Stratford-Upon-Avon”) makes the movie play like a contest between “Masterpiece Theatre” and Mel Brooks. Then the movie stirs in a sweet love story, juicy court intrigue, backstage politics and some lovely moments from “Romeo and Juliet” (Shakespeare’s working title: “Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate’s Daughter”). – Roger Ebert
Starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Joseph Fiennes, Geoffrey Rush, Tom Wilkinson, Steven O’Donnell.
Note: ”Shakespeare in Love” is rated R. It includes nudity, bawdy humor and torrid sexual situations.