Lovely... Review on Shakespeare In Love Movie

Winner of seven, count 'em, seven Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Actress (Gwyneth Paltrow), Best Supporting Actress (Judy Dench), Best Original Screenplay (co-written by one of my favs Tom Stoppard), this wonderful film on DVD has a great look and is filled with some great features.

I have to admit that the film charmed me the first time I saw it, and purchased the Video, and watched it to death, and any closet romantic like myself will be enchanted in the same way.

The story is purely screwball - William Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes) is suffering writer's block while slogging away as a hired pen for Henslow (Geoffery Rush), a theatre owner. He seeks inspiration and nothing works. He bemoans the fact that if he had 50 pounds he could join the Admiral's Men and become a partner to receive a percentage of the profits from the theatre.

When Viola (Gwyneth Paltrow), a young lady to-the-manor-born, desires to be an actress, she disguises herself as a young boy to secure an audition. Shakespeare is so taken by the 'young man's' sensitive audition that he offers the lead role in his new play titled ''Romeo, and Ethel the Pirate's Daughter'' (a name change will develop in the course of the film).

It eventually becomes clear to Shakespeare that Viola is indeed a young woman ripe for the wooing, and their romance is ignited. Despite the fact that it is against the Queen's Rule, that women not be allowed onstage, Viola continues in the role of Romeo.

The action becomes fast and furious and evermore screwball, given that the Earl of Wessex (Colin Firth) has purchased Viola's hand in marriage in securing a dowry for his tobacco plantations in Virginia, and has threatened to kill Shakespeare if he even talks to Viola!

The more you know about Tudor, Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama, manners and politics, and Shakespeare's writing gives you even more chuckles at some of the inside intellectual literary jokes, but even with a cursory knowledge of the period you'll still find plenty of funnies in the film.

The language of the script is a hybrid form of Elizabethan and Modern English. Outstanding scenes are when William Shakespeare consults a psycho analyst whose approach is strictly Freudian- this very modern session on the analyst's couch is done completely in Elizabethan English.

There is a scene before Shakespeare realizes that Viola is a woman (she has disguised her self as Thomas Kent, with a fake moustache), where he is trying to ascertain from 'Kent' if Viola loves him. At the climax of the scene Viola, overcome by her emotions kisses Shakespeare, and there is a real reaction to this by William. No one can watch this scene and not laugh, unless made of stone.

The emotional context of first love transcends the film as when Viola and William consummate their relationship and Viola asks, ''Are you the writer of the plays by William Shakespeare?'' It's a hilarious point of view.

Joseph Fiennes as William Shakespeare is wonderfully angst-ridden, as we watch him struggle to write some that an audience will like. The scenes with him and Gwyneth Paltrow as Viola are filled with the great dynamic that makes great performances. Each actor has the ability to show great vulnerability and strength simultaneously.

This DVD contains really great bonus materials. A few short documentaries on the making of the film, the costumes design, and Shakespeare in film through the ages, all have clips and interviews from the actors and others in the film. We get a great look at where the money goes in a production like this.

There are also two separate commentary tracts that add real insight to the making of the film ''Shakespeare in Love''. One of them John Madden, the director, talks about his own thoughts in casting and directing, and other elements of the film. This documentary shows the real 'Auteur' side of the making of the film, and proves that the director is a vital part of really great filmmaking.

The other commentary track is one with the cast and crew and has Gwyneth Paltrow, Joseph Fienes, Geoffery Rush, Judy Dench, and many others commenting on how parts of the film were developed.

There are also several deleted scenes that show that the director had different ideas about certain material. In particular the final scene had two different versions. It's great to view the deleted scenes and compare them with what was left in the film.

You'll laugh, you'll cry... okay maybe you'll just reread ''Romeo and Juliet'' with a different attitude. The lowest price I've found is at half.com for $7.25.