Shakespeare in Love

So this week things are going to be a little bit different than they have been for these past 2 weeks. First let’s start it off by talking about a movie that I DIDN’T think deserve to win. 1998’s best picture winner Shakespeare in Love.

1998: Shakespeare in Love

Beat Out: Elizabeth, Life is Beautiful, Saving Private Ryan, and The Thin Red Line

Well-known quotes: "I would stay asleep my whole life, if I could dream myself into a company of players." "I know something of a woman in a man's profession. Yes, by God, I do know about that"

I mean, I bet you can see my reasonings for not agreeing with this victor just from the movies it beat out…(Saving Private Ryan???? Life is Beautiful?????)

But no, I don’t judge whether a movie should win based on the other nominees. I like to look at the movie on it’s own and see if it had elements that made it desrve to win…not if it was better than all the other nominees. I mean some years there are just a bunch of awesome movies that get nominated. Only one can win, but that doesn’t mean that they all didn’t deserve it.

In my opinion, Shakespeare in Love didn’t deserve to win, and there were other movies nominated that I think did, which makes it that much more annoying.

This was the first movie I watched as a part of my quest that I 100% thought didn’t deserve to win. For a while, I just figured I was a dumb teenager whose opinions didn’t really mean anything and who knew nothing. I mean if it won it must be good right? But then as I got older I saw articles around Oscar time giving lists of movies that didn’t deserve to win, and this one is always on there. So I felt validated in my opinion.

The movie is a comedy about William Shakespeare's (played by Joseph Fiennes yes Ralph Fiennes younger brother) struggles to find inspiration for his next play. He eventually falls in love with Viola (played by Gwyneth Paltrow) a woman who pretends to be a boy in order to be an actor. He is eventually inspired to write Romeo and Juliet. Ugh it’s just boring. There was no actor that stood out to me, no scene or message. Just blah.

Lets talk about the two actors from this movie that won oscars for their roles....there are some interesting things to say about each

First, Gwyneth Paltrow won best lead actress for her role as Viola. But what I think most people remember about this win isn't her role or her acting....it's her acceptance speech. Very emotional. I've heard different things about this speech, but I'll just let you guys watch and form opinions. Be ready for some crying.  

Then of course there is of course the great Dame Judi Dench, who won the oscar for best supporting actress for her role as Queen Elizabeth. Now, I'm not knocking her work at all, she's an amazing actress. But what makes this win so interesting is that she was only in the movie for 8 minutes...

It’s not even that the story was “simple,” I love simple movies. Those action packed mob movies that I’ve been talking about are definitely not my favorite kind of movie. If you’ve noticed, the reasons I think they deserved to win is because of the underlying simple story within them, like struggles within a family. 

Shakespeare in Love was definitely not the worst movie I've ever seen, and at times I did find it endearing. But, at the end of the movie I didn't really feel anything. It didn't have that WOW factor that I think every best picture should have. I guess the message they were trying to send out was something about love? But I didn't get it. 

So yeah, I’m happy for Shakespeare and that he was in love or whatever, but not a best picture, in my opinion.