Shakespeare in Love
1998
****½
Director: John Madden
Cast: Gwyneth Paltrow, Joseph Fiennes, Geoffrey Rush, Judi Dench
Shakespeare hits a writer's block just when he's trying to finish Romeo and Juliet. He begins to come out of his shell when he discovers that one of his actors is actually a beautiful young woman in disguise. This romantic comedy uses many real-life characters to tell a charming fictionalised story. It's full of clever injokes and references, half of which probably go unnoticed on a person unfamiliar with the works or the era of the Bard. Gwyneth Paltrow and Judi Dench won two of the film's seven Academy Awards.
