N.Y. Times, 11/15/98
By Matt Wolf

LONDON -- RALPH FIENNES devotees will recall that the 1992 television film, "A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia," more or less introduced the actor to the United States. It's unlikely, however, that viewers also caught the fleeting presence of a younger Fiennes, Joseph, playing Ralph's onscreen brother. (So tiny is the part that the lesser-known Fiennes does not make the credit roll.)

Six years, and many more substantial parts later, 28-year-old Joseph Fiennes is emerging as a name to reckon with on his own. His role next month as Gwyneth Paltrow's Bardic suitor in "Shakespeare in Love" is expected to clinch him as a separate but equal talent to that of his Tony-winning, Oscar-nominated brother.

Not that Mr. Fiennes particularly welcomes comparisons, however inevitable. Although he talks freely about his family -- he and Ralph are two of seven children-- Joseph wants recognition for his merits, not his surname. (At least he is spared the pronunciation issue: after the success of Ralph -- as in 'Rafe' -- everyone knows Fiennes is pronounced fines.)

"I've put in a lot of work, and I just get a bit concerned when people think, 'Oh, he's got the job because of x, y and z.' " said Mr. Fiennes recently at a trendy West London "gastro-pub."

Those worries will likely recede once more people see the younger actor's work. Joseph can be thought of as putting a kinder, gentler -- O.K., cuter -- face on Ralph's well-known intensity. Just as it is hard to imagine the doe-eyed Joseph playing the SS officer Amon Goeth in "Schindler's List" -- his brother's career-making part -- it is equally hard to envision Ralph bringing the same innocent ardor to "Shakespeare in Love" or "Martha -- Meet Frank, Daniel, and Laurence," the English romantic comedy due in the United States this spring. Indeed, the single Mr. Fiennes seems to have cornered the young swain market. This fall, one could not navigate the London Underground without seeing his face advertising the new film "Elizabeth," in which he plays Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, with the single word "Lover" emblazoned across the poster.

In context, it's little surprise that his other credits include a Romeo for the complete spoken-word Shakespeare recorded by Arkangel as well as the smoldering young haberdasher in the Peter Whelan play "The Herbal Bed" for the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1996. Charles Spencer wrote of the performance in The Daily Telegraph that Mr. Fiennes conveyed "raw anguish as the self-tormenting lover." (That character's name, incidentally, was Rafe.)

"His passion is very hot, I think," said Adrian Noble, artistic director of the R.S.C., who had watched Ralph emerge within the same company nearly a decade before. "I wouldn't call Joe a cuddly actor. He's not warm in that sense; he's warm in the heat of passion."

As for the charm he projects in "Shakespeare in Love," playing a heartsick young Elizabethan poet-playwright named Will Shakespeare, "I don't think Joe plays it," said the film's director, John Madden ("Mrs. Brown"). "I think he simply has it. There's an openness there, and a kind of vulnerability, too."

That may be why Mr. Fiennes speaks of wanting to be cast against type -- of playing Mercutio, say, instead of Romeo. In the London production of Nick Grosso's play "Real Classy Affair," he played a smooth-talking hipster whose shiny suits hide a malevolent spirit. A forthcoming film, "Rancid Aluminum," casts him as a psychopathic Irish bookkeeper.

Early next year, Mr. Fiennes will travel to Miami to make his first American film, "Forever Mine," directed by Paul Schrader. "I have to age up 15 years, and get shot in the face," said Mr. Fiennes, sounding pleased. "It's character acting again. You can't beat it."