Shakespeare in Love

William Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes) is on a cold streak. Not only is he writing for Philip Henslowe (Geoffrey Rush), owner of "The Rose," a theatre whose doors are about to be closed by sadistic creditors, but he's got a nasty case of writer's block. Shakespeare hasn't written a hit in years. In ...more

In a decade in which Shakespearean subjects had become increasingly popular, John Madden's Shakespeare In Love ripped the envelope and then some. Madden's treatment of Marc Norman's and Tom Stoppard's screenplay reminded audiences that Shakespeare's plays were works of flesh and blood, and their playwright a living, breathing human being who faced practical problems and used his best creative impulses, sometimes on the spur of the moment, to solve them. Joseph Fiennes's Shakespeare is a ...more