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Common Sense Note

Parents need to know that this movie has numerous racy moments, including graphic sexual scenes and partial female nudity. Much of the dialogue carries a crass sexual undertone. However, the violence, consisting mostly of sword and dagger battles, is relatively benign for a teenage audience.

Families who see this movie could discuss the characters' conflicts between family, duty, and love. They could also discuss the movie's treatment of gender and class. How do Viola and Queen Elizabeth both subvert and conform to the limitations of their status as females? What are the privileges and limitations of class and social status? How do these issues compare with circumstances today?

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Common Sense Review

Reviewed By: Chloe Mead

This majestic, romantic movie imagines the inspiration and events surrounding the writing of William Shakespeare's storied lovers' tragedy, "Romeo and Juliet." The movie begins with a mid-career Shakespeare battling a bout of writer's block as he struggles to create a new masterpiece worthy of his earlier successes.

Enter Viola de Lesseps, a dreamy aristocrat's daughter enamored with theater and romance. In reference to the common gender disguise trajectory in numerous Shakespeare plays, Viola dresses as a male to audition for Shakespeare's play in progress, since women are forbidden to act. Upon hearing her inspired recitations, Shakespeare is convinced that he has found his male lead. Startled by the apparition of the famed playwright, the disguised Viola dashes from the theater. Shakespeare follows, running all the way to Viola's home, where he devises a scheme to sneak into the mansion. This is where he first lays eyes on the radiant, unmasked Viola. He falls utterly in love and finds new inspiration for his craft.

Like his Romeo, Shakespeare woos his love underneath her balcony. A passionate secret love affair ensues, and he begins to compose "Romeo and Juliet." The play and love affair develop concurrently, the unfolding plot reflecting the evolution of their relationship. Though their love for one another is steadfast, Viola and Shakespeare face extraordinary obstacles to their relationship, including their divergent class backgrounds and Viola's forced betrothal to another man. The drama heightens and tensions escalate until the film reaches its climactic conclusion.

This movie paints a stunning, nuanced portrait of life and theater in the Elizabethan era. All the actors thoroughly embody their characters, from the brooding eyes and ink-stained fingers of Joseph Fiennes' Shakespeare, to Gwyneth's Paltrow's ethereal and independent Viola, and a superlative cast of supporting actors, including Ben Affleck as a prima donna actor and Judi Dench as a formidable Queen Elizabeth.

Families who enjoy SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE may also enjoy Franco Zeffirelli's classic "Romeo and Juliet," "Much Ado About Nothing," with Emma Thompson and Kenneth Branagh, and Baz Luhrmann's revisionist take on "William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet."

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