The tone of the story is set from the start when the audience is introduced to a 30-year-old "Will" Shakespeare (Fiennes) who is suffering from a horrible case of writer's block. He assures Phillip Henslowe (Geoffrey Rush), the owner of the Rose Theatre, that he has all but completed his newest play, a comedy named "Romeo and Esther the Pirate's Daughter." However, the struggling playwright has not written a word, and instead runs around London looking for inspiration.
We are also introduced to Lady Viola De Lesseps (Gwyneth Paltrow), who wants nothing more than to be in a group of players and is forced to adopt a male identity in order to audition for Shakespeare's new comedy.
A love affair develops between Shakespeare and Lady Viola, and the plot thickens as Lady Viola's family obligations force her to become engaged to another man, and Shakespeare's play is banned.
While it is very unlikely that writers Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard-best known for "Rosencratz and Guildenstern Are Dead"-constructed a sequence of events that is even remotely close to what truly transpired in London in 1593, the passion in Will and Viola's relationship seems to explain nearly every line of "Romeo and Juliet."
Along with Paltrow, the picture features outstanding supporting roles from Rush as Henslowe, ageless Judi Dench as Queen Elizabeth, and Ben Affleck, who is surprisingly witty and clever in the role of Ned, the leader of "The Admiral's Men," in his smallest role since his uncredited one in "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer" in 1992.
Perhaps the sole flaw in the otherwise magnificent screenplay-the fact that the jokes within the story are often a little too cute: is almost completely overshadowed by a movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat from the opening scene to the final credits.
The preceding is an excerpt of a review by Steve Vladeck that originally appeared in the Jan. 27, 1999 issue of The Student.