Shakespeare in Love (1998)
Directed by John Madden
Young William Shakespeare is forced to stage his latest comedy, 'Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate's Daughter', before it's even written. When lovely noblewoman Viola de Lesseps auditions for a role, they fall into forbidden love — and Shakespeare's play finds a new life (and title). As their relationship intensifies, the comedy soon transforms into tragedy.
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What critics compared Shakespeare in Love to
…contrived in a “Shakespeare in Love” sort of way…
Some of these have been highly fictitious, such as the brilliant "Shakespeare in Love," which earned multiple Academy Awards…
This is not Shakespeare in Love redux.
…movies about William Shakespeare (whether his life or something less straightforward than that [e.g., Shakespeare in Love, which focuses on what, fictionally speaking, inspired him to write Romeo & Juliet]) have become part of their own genre…
Although there are some thematic similarities with Shakespeare in Love, with the Bard getting ideas that we recognise from his theatrical work, this is a far more testing and upsetting film…
Chloe Zhao's Hamnet is a kind of flip side to Shakespeare in Love.
Leaning a little extra heavily on the Shakespeare in Love button, Lasse Hallstrom's Casanova is a slight, silly, and entirely frothy little confection ... but I'd be lying if I said I didn't find some really entertaining stuff littered throughout its weirdness.
In that sense -- and many others -- the movie recalls the playful, knockabout verve of Richard Lester's 1970s "Three Musketeers" romps -- or, more recently, the 1998 Oscar winner "Shakespeare in Love," without the soaring glories of the latter's Oscar-winning script.
Basically it's just a big, childish farce--more American Pie than Shakespeare in Love.
Comparisons to “Shakespeare in Love” are inevitable, and while it isn’t better than that, it’s not exactly trying to be, regardless of the myriad of similar themes.
Such obstacles are predictably mined for sub-Shakespearean (or, rather, sub-Shakespeare in Love) identity flip-flops in which Francesca's covert career as a writer of women's lib literature is matched by Casanova's masquerading as Papprizzio (at a masquerade ball, no less).
Likewise, the Faustian deal he dangles before Anakin constitutes Lucas’ best recent work as a screenwriter (though "Shakespeare in Love" wordsmith Tom Stoppard is rumored to have had a hand).
Rumor has it that “Shakespeare in Love” writer Tom Stoppard did an uncredited polish on Lucas’ dialogue.
The stars who do the heavy lifting are costume designer Sandy Powell ( Shakespeare in Love , The Aviator ) and production designer Dante Ferretti ( Casino , Gangs of New York ), who give expert form and function to a storybook world where Cinderella can go for a ride in the woods and meet an undercover prince, "Kit" (Richard Madden), leaving him so smitten that a royal ball is announced to which every eligible maiden in the land is invited.
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Working from a screenplay by newcomer Jonathan Perera, director John Madden (“Shakespeare in Love”) delivers a portrait of systemic corruption that’s likely to render moviegoers even more skeptical of Washington politics.
Directed by John Madden (“Shakespeare in Love”) from a script by newcomer Jonathan Perera, “Miss Sloane” is centered around a Senate ethics hearing/witch hunt chaired by Senator Sperling (John Lithgow).
Jessica Chastain is all hellfire and high heels as powerful Washington lobbyist Elizabeth Sloane in the film (*** out of four; rated R; in select theaters Friday in New York and Los Angeles, expands nationwide Dec. 9), directed by John Madden (Shakespeare in Love) and written by first-time screenwriter Jonathan Perera (who's unabashedly channeling his inner Aaron Sorkin).
Director John Madden (“Shakespeare in Love,” the “Exotic Marigold Hotel” movies) expertly juggles the various subplots while never losing his main focus, which is to showcase Jessica Chastain’s nearly infinite palette of acting shades.
This may be a harder-hitting story that director John Madden is best known for — the two recent Best Exotic Marigold Hotel movies, and more famously 1998’s Shakespeare in Love — but he plays it straightforward.
Director John Madden — whose résumé includes the considerably tamer Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and Shakespeare in Love — keeps his camera in constant motion, though it seems no camera can move fast enough for Chastain's frantic, sure to be awards-hyped energy.
Consider the scene where Regina Hall plays a black woman at " Shakespeare in Love ," who shouts "That ain't no man!" when Gwyneth Paltrow is on the screen, videotapes the movie from her seat and carries on a cell phone conversation.
Also taking advantage of the chance to test out their comedic skills are Shawn and Marlon Wayans; the delightful Regina Hall (1999's "The Best Man"), as loudmouth Brenda, who gets her much deserved comeuppance in one of the picture's best scenes, when she causes an uproar at the local movie theater showing "Shakespeare in Love;" Shannon Elizabeth (1999's "American Pie"), who is distraught that her boyfriend is killed until she learns she has just won the town's beauty pageant as Miss Fellatio; and Dave Sheridan and the sadly underused Cheri Oteri (TV's "Saturday Night Live"), as Deputy Doofy and Gail Hailstorm, obvious takes on the David Arquette and Courteney Cox Arquette characters in the "Scream" movies.
This phenomenon of touching the zeitgeist is what propels a movie into award season, often with an impact that outruns some of Hollywood’s more self-indulgent trophy winners that come with pre-sold campaigns like Shakespeare In Love or The Artist .
By the time "Moulin Rouge" reaches its finale -- a lavish performance of Christian's play which parallels the film's romance story a la "Shakespeare In Love" -- the plot has degraded into a series of contrived obstacles thrown in his lovers' path.
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The Raven feels like it was pumped out by an industry desperate to capitalize on the success of Shakespeare in Love by repurposing another “household name” author into familiar genre trappings.
At its helm is director John Madden, who has shown in films like Shakespeare in Love and Mrs. Brown that he can easily put together pleasing middle-brow dramas for the mainstream arthouse set.