Official Synopsis
Out of ideas and cash, a young Will Shakespeare (Fiennes), is in search of a muse to break his creative drought. After meeting the lovely Lady Viola (Paltrow), the two find themselves entangled in a secret romance that rejuvenates Will’s creativity. His pen flows like never before until he uncovers two unexpected truths about his new lover – she’s promised to marry someone else and she’s successfully impersonating a man to play the lead in Will’s latest play.
Much like Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet, Shakespeare in Love brings a lot of charm, some action and a large amount of sadness to the screen. Director John Madden has created a very balanced film that is led by Joseph Fiennes, as Will Shakespeare, and Gwyneth Paltrow as Viola De Lesseps. Both are believable lovers and both do well in understanding that their love has to build and bloom into some sort of unstoppable greatness. When you can lose complete sight that Paltrow and Fiennes are merely actors, then they’ve done their job. I’m not sure I’ll be able to picture another William Shakespeare other than Fiennes.
Anyway, Madden, along with writers Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard, put together a very creative story about Shakespeare’s struggle to emerge from writer’s block, and his struggle to keep his beautiful muse, Viola. Norman and Stoppard put together a perfect love story that properly ends in tragedy, which will make you want to come back for more. Shakespeare in Love is one of those films that you won’t forget, and it’s not merely just because the young lovers have such great moments and montages (they do, though). It’s a well thought out piece of work, that requires intricate pieces in properly placed moments for the entire story to truly work.
It’s one of those rare movies that moves so quickly that you don’t have time to appreciate everything properly. That’s okay, because it does everything in the film so well that you will want to watch it again. For example, through out the entire movie you will find quotes and references to previous Shakespeare works or sonnets. Sometimes they are obvious, while other times they are subtle:
Philip Henslowe (Geoffrey Rush): Will, the play must… ya know
Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes): Yes, yes, GO ON!
This movie is brilliantly written with Shakespeare’s works in mind. It’s not simply enough that the play that the film surrounds and strives towards is ultimately Romeo & Juliet.
If you have never experienced Shakespeare in Love then you are in for one helluva treat. I can guarantee you that you’ll love this film. It deserved the seven Oscars that it won in 1999.
Now, as for the Blu-ray, it simply looks gorgeous. Considering that the film is only $14.99 and it looks this good, is mind-bending. Most movies that come out at a cheap price generally sacrifice quality for cost. For some reason, Lionsgate puts just as much effort into its re-releases as it does its new releases. Only Paramount and Warner Home Video can claim the same amount of effort, but Lionsgate really delivers in terms of quality. This movie is full of colors (mostly reds, greens, yellows and blues) that stand out quite nicely in HD. You get some really pure, clean and crisp visuals with this release. The only knock I can make against it is that I can see the black frames from the original film transfer. My wife didn’t notice it as much, but I could see it. Had that been cleaned then you would have had the perfect Blu-ray. Still, it’s damn close to perfect.
In addition to the visuals, you also get great audio with a 5.1 DTS-HD transfer and a full screen ratio with 2.85:1. Simply a great visual and audio treat.
Finally, the features are as follows:
– “Shakespeare in Love and On Film” – “making of” featurette
– Academy Award® winning costumes featurette
– Audio commentary with John Madden
– Audio commentary with cast and crew
– Deleted scenes
– Theatrical Trailer
– Television spots
Again, for a Blu-ray that has a $14.99 price tag, you’re getting a lot with this release.