The Dallas Morning News, August 13, 1999

Oscar's best picture of 1998, Shakespeare in Love is a feel-great movie.

It stirs a terrific awareness of both the exhilaration and pain of artistry and creativity. And you can also be assured that it makes you feel terrific about love, romance and sex.

The exquisite movie has a quality that few contemporary comedies can claim - genuine verbal wit. Almost every line of dialogue provokes a smile, a chuckle or a guffaw. That shouldn't be surprising, since it's co-written by Tom Stoppard, whose Rosencranz and Guildenstern Are Dead made merry with Hamlet.

With a superb cast headed by a luminous Gwyneth Paltrow and a smoldering Joseph Fiennes, Shakespeare in Love is both ribald and romantic, fulfilling its title's amorous promise.

When first seen, the young writer called Will Shakespeare (Mr. Fiennes, Ralph's younger brother) is a 1593 London wannabe. He's enjoyed some successes, but his talent is deemed inferior to that of self- aggrandizing Christopher Marlowe (an unbilled Rupert Everett). Currently, Will is prodded by a debt-ridden and increasingly hysterical theater owner (Geoffrey Rush) to spin out a crowd-pleasing comedy, "Romeo and Ethel, The Pirate's Daughter."

Enter Lady Viola (Ms. Paltrow), who's intelligent enough to appreciate all of Will's plays and sonnets and to recognize that he's not merely a flavor-of-the-fortnight. But Viola's parents have arranged her marriage to an unworthy lout (Colin Firth). Does this make her an ideal Shakespeare heroine or what?

Director John Madden brings all the screenplay's nuances to lusty life. Ms. Paltrow and Mr. Fiennes make a sensuous, tender pair. Ms. Paltrow's Viola is warm and sparkling, consistently vibrant. Mr. Fiennes is always accessible yet never less than convincing as a literary icon. He even looks lively when brooding.

Mr. Rush shows true comic command as the beleaguered producer, while Mr. Everett speaks daggers as the arrogant Marlowe.

Dame Judi Dench, the morose Queen Victoria in director Madden's Mrs. Brown, does a powerhouse turn as Queen Elizabeth, a monarch who enjoys her own private jokes but has no time to suffer the frivolities of others. Dame Judi, who won an Oscar for this performance, is on her way to becoming an international treasure.