Brilliant! SiL is the story of William Shakespeare, dogged with writer's block that comes from having no romance in his life. The film postulates that two theatres in London are fighting for writers and financial survival and that Shakespeare and Marlowe are the writers-in-demand. The plot - as intricate and yet trivial as His plays could be - parallels Shakespeare's affair with a noble girl dressing as a boy to become an actor, with the evolution of the characters in his play as they grow (via rewrites) to become Romeo and Juliet. The movie is comedy, tragedy, and love story paralleling love story all rolled into one.
The greatest asset of the film is utterly crisp, witty, sharp, deliverable dialogue. The writers, one of whom is Tom Stoppard, maintain a constant, clear, high level of action-in-words of which The Great Bard himself would be justly envious. Written in the style of Shakespeare, in the era of Shakespeare, and with the same aims as Shakespeare, it is magnificent work.
There are touches with reality (or at least literary legend) that add to the whole in the same way that Back to the Future touched history as we know it. Mixed with dashes of frivolous impossibility (Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth plays a role), and Stoppardesque quirks that play with destiny and probability, the film exudes the enthusiasm of its creators.
There is a fabulous line up of actors; Judy Dench is Queen Elizabeth, Joseph Fiennes portrays Will brilliantly, Geoffrey Rush plays one of the theatre owners. Gwynneth Paltrow successfully acts a part that is not Gwynneth Paltrow. Many other faces will be familiar.
I cannot help imagining that this movie comes from the same stable as "Elizabeth": The bringing together of a story with enough literary and historical credentials, the tight, ingenious scripting, the borrowing of all the right themes from history and literature, sure direction and people-appeal are all there. Finally, Paltrow looks so similar to Blanchett you can imagine someone lamenting one's unavailability and asking where would another in the same mould be found!
Bearing in mind that SiL, like R&J, has no pretensions to thematic contribution, I have to score this as a 9 out of 10. As entertainment without profound moral or a desire to make you think deeply, it is close to perfect.