Before this past week, I had never really heard of Shakespeare in Love (I’m not really a movie person), but when I looked it up, I saw that it had won seven Oscars, so was interested to see what it was going to be like. Overall, I’m going to say that it was an okay movie. There were definitely parts I enjoyed, but others I found kind of cringeworthy. Before watching the movie, GRF Sara asked us to consider the process of creating a masterpiece of art and if love could be captured in a play or such a movie.

I thought the question about the creation of art was interesting in the case of this movie. Clearly, someone is telling Shakespeare expectations they have – like it being a comedy about pirates or that there needs to be a dog – but his mind takes him in a different direction. But at the same time, he experiences writer’s block, which everyone does. When he talks to Marlowe, you can tell that they don’t have an actual rivalry with each other, as Marlowe just talks about certain ideas that might work for the a star-crossed lover play. Doing this makes it even more impactful on Shakespeare when Marlowe dies, as first, he thinks he is the cause of the death, and two, that no one really source of every part of a large piece of work. It is entirely possible that some of the masterworks we know and attribute to one person could be the combination of many ideas from many different places, not something churned out by a solitary genius.

On the subject of creating a play or movie about love, I don’t know if I think either the original play or the movie capture that. When thinking about the play, I think while Romeo and Juliet clearly had feelings for each other, they could not have possibly been that in love. I guess this point of view may be different for those who believe in love at first sight. That is not to say that I do not enjoy the play. I appreciate Shakespeare’s writing and found myself reciting lines of the play as they either rehearsed or performed them in the movie, because certain prominent lines sort of stick with you unknowingly. I do not know, however, if I find the play to be a great love story.

As for the movie itself, I agree with another poster that it is somewhat tacky. While I don’t know much about fashion at that time, the fact that Shakespeare was always wearing those same strange pants and that he could get away with being a nursemaid to accompany Viola was ridiculous. Also the fact that a woman with so much hair and pretty feminine body language could get away with a fake mustache and a wig was ludicrous. The part of the film that resulted in the most visceral distaste was the reading of the play cutting between Shakespeare and Viola in bed and Viola and the actor playing Juliet in rehearsal. It just seemed contrived and unnecessary. At least to me, it was one of the most unromantic parts of the movie.

All this being said, I really don’t know if love can be fully portrayed in a play or movie or any work of art. Love is such a complex internal emotion that encompasses lots of different thoughts and actions, and is experienced differently in different people. While I think there are definitely instances where love is expressed in art, I cannot say there is a work of art out there that truly captures the feeling of love for everyone.