Shakespeare channels passion into revision of 'Romeo and Ethel'

By Julie Hinds
San Jose Mercury News
Published: Wednesday, December 23, 1998

SHAKESPEARE'S PLAYS have survived this long because they're so all-encompassing. They're funny yet tragic, highbrow yet bawdy, too complicated to ever figure out completely yet possible to enjoy without an advanced degree in English lit.

So is "Shakespeare in Love," a movie that takes the spirit of the Bard's work and has a swell time running with it. Smart crowd-pleasers are rare. So are romantic comedies that soar with genuine passion. This movie succeeds as both.

Much of the credit goes to acclaimed English playwright Tom Stoppard, who, along with Marc Norman, has delivered a script that fulfills the imagination of its concept. What was young Will Shakespeare's life really like? In the screenplay's canny view, it's exactly what a harried Broadway whiz kid might experience today, minus the neon and the good hygiene.

In the filthy, plague-threatened London of 1593, Will (Joseph Fiennes) is a rising star on the theater scene, but he's also got his share of problems. Money is tight; actors are egotistical; and writer's block looms as he tries to finish his latest play.

The poor man can't even take a boat taxi up the Thames without some budding writer trying to pawn off a script on him. No wonder he retreats to a trendy restaurant where the special of the day is pig's feet marinated in juniper berries. Drowning his sorrows in a glass, he contemplates the pathetic state of "Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate's Daughter."

While commiserating with his friendly archrival, Christopher Marlowe (Rupert Everett), Will hashes out a few structural problems. His pal Kit suggests heating up the action, maybe with a flashy character. What about a hothead named Mercutio?

Not bad, thinks Will. But it's going to take more than helpful editing to get him back on track. Enter the lovely Viola (Gwyneth Paltrow), a noblewoman bitten by the theater bug whose radiant beauty inspires Will to get down to serious revisions, plus a sonnet that compares her to a summer's day.

Since women aren't allowed to act onstage, Viola cross-dresses as a man to win the part of Romeo. By the time Will has sorted out her twin identities (talk about a Shakespeare theme!), he also realizes Viola is obligated to marry the loutish Lord Wessex (Colin Firth), who wants to drag her off to breed heirs in the wilderness of Virginia. With doomed love on the brain, Will changes the play's title and shifts the focus of "Romeo and Juliet" from comedy to tragedy.

That's the synopsis, but it hardly begins to cover the wealth of in-jokes and clever allusions that Stoppard utilizes to work out his premise. He's done this sort of thing before with "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead," the famous play that reconceived "Hamlet" through the eyes of two minor characters.

"Shakespeare in Love" has a similar degree of complexity, but it sparkles with a breezier affection for theater and a sexy love affair. Even if you haven't cracked the spine of "Romeo and Juliet" since the twelfth night of twelfth grade, it's still easy to enjoy.

As a behind-the-scenes look at theatrical life, the film has the freshness of a modern documentary. It's Stoppard's thesis that the milieu hasn't changed much in 400 years, and he's probably right.

Actors still have inflated opinions of themselves, just like Ned Alleyn (Ben Affleck), the Elizabethan equivalent to Leonardo DiCaprio, who agrees to be in Will's play after being told his character, Mercutio, is the lead. It takes him a while to figure out that Romeo has more scenes.

The men who run shows still scramble to cover costs, as does Philip Henslowe (Geoffrey Rush, hilarious in goofy teeth), the Rose Theater manager who's always one step short of complete financial ruin. In a trenchant bit, his feet are literally held to a fire by a creditor when he's late paying bills.

And fat cats still fall in love with the klieg lights and invest their riches to be a part of the fun. As Hugh Fennyman, the financier of "Romeo and Juliet," Tom Wilkinson of "The Full Monty" is transformed from hard-nosed businessman ("I'm the money," he says by way of introduction) to stagestruck lackey. By opening night, Fennyman has wormed his way into the part of the apothecary who gives Romeo the poison.

The magic of the stage feeds the chemistry between Will and Viola, who are the year's swooniest couple (sorry, Tom and Meg). Joseph Fiennes, Ralph's younger brother, smolders as Will. Paltrow, who's been kind of bland in recent projects, has an inner glow as Viola, a woman who's so ahead of her time that she could have inspired all of Shakespeare's female characters.

During a scene that bounces between their steamy embrace and rehearsals of the "Romeo and Juliet" balcony scene, the movie demonstrates how art feeds off life. There are a few brief nude scenes, but what's really stripped bare is the creative process. Just watching Will rush off to write the play's next scene while the actors wait around impatiently is inspiring. Term-paper writers of the world, take heart: Immortal words can flow from a crushing deadline.

Director John Madden handles the intersecting plot threads with a light touch. His last film was "Mrs. Brown," which may account for Judi Dench's delightful appearance as Elizabeth I, a royal with a wicked sense of humor and a penchant for plays with funny dogs.

Old Queen Bess would have enjoyed this film. "Shakespeare in Love" is a blast, and it's the least pretentious exploration of artistic genius I've ever seen. Those ink-stained fingers of Will's would have been proud to shake the hand that quilled this doozy of a story.