BEN AFFLECK plays a renowned actor ready to work in Will's next play.COLIN FIRTH plays a blowhard landowner who forces his way into marrying Viola.Along the way, she has an affair with Will while also learning that she's to be married to Wessex (against her will). As a result, she dresses like a man to appear in the play. GWYNETH PALTROW plays a young lady with a passion for the theater in the days when women couldn't appear on stage.JOSEPH FIENNES plays the playwright William Shakespeare who, despite reportedly being married, has a fling with Viola.WILL KIDS WANT TO SEE IT? Shakespeare will usually send most kids running for the hills, but the presence of Paltrow and Affleck may draw in some teens. Unfortunately for Will - who falls for Viola once he learns of her ruse - she's unknowingly engaged to Lord Wessex (COLIN FIRTH), a New World landowner who's received approval of his pending marriage from none other than Queen Elizabeth I (JUDI DENCH).Īs their romance progresses and they continue working on the play that slowly becomes 'Romeo and Juliet' - with Viola still in disguise and popular actor Ned Alleyn (BEN AFFLECK) now in the cast, Will and Viola deal with her pending marriage to Wessex as well as efforts by others to close down the theater and Shakespeare's latest production. Unfortunately for her, no women are allowed on the stage in her time and thus every role is played by a man.

Spotting the perfect young man, Thomas Kent, for the part of his hero, Will goes chasing after him unaware that he's really a she in disguise - Viola De Lesseps (GWYNETH PALTROW), a wealthy debutante with a passion for the theater. When he finds her in bed with another man, however, he tears up his first draft and wonders how he'll ever finish his play, 'Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate's daughter.'Īgreeing to deliver his work to Henslowe who's being pressured by his financier, Fennyman (TOM WILKINSON), to open a play, Will's luck changes during casting auditions. With theater owners Philip Henslowe (GEOFFREY RUSH) and Richard Burbage (MARTIN CLUNES) anxious for his latest work, Will is desperate for any help, especially considering that he's competing against the likes of literary marvel, Christopher Marlowe (RUPERT EVERETT).ĭesperate for the intervention of a romantic muse, he hopes that his female acquaintance, Rosaline (SANDRA REINTON), may cure his malady. PLOT: It's 1593 London, and a young and struggling playwright, Will Shakespeare (JOSEPH FIENNES), has a series case of writer's block. QUICK TAKE: Romantic Comedy: Suffering a serious case of writer's block, playwright William Shakespeare hopes the intervention of a romantic muse will cure his literary malady. (1998) (Joseph Fiennes, Gwyneth Paltrow) (R)

Shakespeare in love 1998