Thursday, February 18, 1999
By Harry Knowles
http://www.aint-it-cool-news.com

Every year there is a movie that is caught in the rapture of universal orgasmic reviews, that I choose to hold back. A guaranteed pleaser. A sure thing.

This year I choose SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE to be that film. I’m a dye in the wool romantic. I had heard that it dealt with the romance that gave birth to what many feel (including myself) to be the greatest romance ever written. It featured actors that I universally feel adoration for, and lastly... it’s a period film. I love period films. (I’ll get into it, I promise)

Tonight, I had need to change my sleep schedule. The Tarantino Film fest is a mere day away, and I was not yet on a time table to handle it. So... it was time for an all nighter. We (Father Geek, Tom Joad, Annette Kellerman and myself) watched many DVDs, and then it was time to watch one last film to bring forth the sun.

I love doing what I do. The main benefits are the screeners that publicists or filmmakers send me to look over, and I was lucky enough to be sent a selection of Miramax’s films... some in the groovy Academy screener boxes. Annette and I were the only ones who had not seen the movie. I had planned to see the film the first time in a theater... properly. I’m going in a few hours I assure you. The sun is just now glistening on the underbellies of the few wisps of clouds in the dark night’s parting sky.

I’m now alone, in my room, teeming with romance. God, why do I put myself through these evil motions. I guess I’m a masochist at some level, but I love films about love that makes you willing to throw aside all chains that society may throw at you. To fight any fight, to run through thorny hedges unprotected. To do anything to capture just one last glimpse... and then when you have the glimpse, you want a sip, a kiss, an embrace and love.

I’ve been playing the game that I’ve seen this film with most of my friends. Though Copernicus was the most certain that I hadn’t seen it. Why? Because I wasn’t babbling like a maniac about the movie, and he knew that I would most definitely become a babbling maniac upon seeing this film.

I love the reserve, my little jeweled box of guaranteed cinematic bliss. Films I know little about, but that I know... I’ll dance about whispering the film’s name, humming a tune, crying, shaking, laughing and pursuing conversations afterwards like you always do when you see a wonderfully great film.

Is the film the best movie out of the 1998 crop? I don’t know... right now I’m awashed in it’s magic.

And I’m wallowing in it.

It deserved every nomination it got... though I’m still a bit unsure if Geoffrey Rush should have been nominated for this role... or his role in ELIZABETH... I prefer him in Elizabeth... of course he did create a small but highly memorable character here.

Ms Paltrow should be handed her bald gold guy now. She sooooooo owns it. I was mystified by her in this film. I’m not one of those, “She’s the most beautiful woman I have ever seen,” sorts. I believe there was nudity in this film, but to be honest it could be missing and I wouldn’t have missed a beat. They could have been wearing 40 layers as far as I cared. She captured me with her passion, the way she pursued romance. Sought each consonant... longed for every vowel. Watching her living and understanding their bittersweet meanings. It was... to be sure... enchanting to watch her dual role, though my favorite female ‘dual’ role was Marlene Deitrich in WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION a role that went unrewarded by the Academy.

Our dear Mr Fiennes... well... gosh. He got the shaft, he soooooooooo deserved the nomination for best actor, and a fine argument could be made for his prospects for winning.

I will see this movie no less than 4 more times before the Academy reaches it’s decision. Why? Because right now I’m smitten by the film. I long to sit in my precious 4th or 3rd row center seat... and watch this play played out as large and as grand as it can be played.

It has the potential to become a fave of mine like GODS AND MONSTERS did, and for a similar reason. You see, one of the main reasons I love GODS AND MONSTERS is that it changed the way I saw a beloved story. With SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE......... I’ll never listen to, watch or think about ROMEO AND JULIET without thinking of these two filmic lovers. Of the crew that played it out. Of Judi Dench or Ben Affleck or........ that strange fellow playing the Nurse on stage, or the nurse in the reality of the film, or the rat boy, of the ink stained finger tips, the coiled serpent with a name tucked into it’s hungry jaws.

Or the pure joy I felt watching it unfurl. I’ve been awake for hours, actually DAYS now... I’m ready for the Tarantino Fest... But now the sun is reflecting through a part in the storage shed through my window.

I’ll speak more of this film in upcoming Oscar articles.... what a joy.....

Oh... Great job of picking this one Mr Weinstein.... I hope those two other films you have picked out to produce are of a similar quality... I’m sure they are... you have a knack of finding jewels.