The Oscar Project #71: Shakespeare in Love (1998)

by Chris Marshall:

Poor Colin Firth. Shakespeare in Love marked the second time in three years that one of the Brothers Fiennes stole his wife (or fiancée) away in a Best Picture winner. In The English Patient, he played Geoffrey Clifton, and his wife had an affair with Count Laszlo, played by Ralph Fiennes. Here, his fiancée Viola, played by Gwyneth Paltrow, falls in love with the Bard, who is played by Ralph’s younger brother Joseph.

It was a rough couple of years for Colin, but he’ll bounce back in a big way in a little over a decade when he gets to be a king. Being a king is cool, even if you do have a stuttering problem.

Joseph has not achieved the same level of fame that his older brother has, but he’s still got a very solid list of acting credits. Most impressive is that Shakespeare in Love was only his second screen credit—not a bad start to his career[1]. Paltrow, who I normally don’t like at all, even came across as very likeable here. I worried that my feelings about her in general would cloud my judgment about her performance, but I thought she was quite good.

The Oscar Project #34: West Side Story (1961)

by Chris Marshall:

For all the mean things I’ve said about musicals in the last few posts, I really don’t hate them. There are just plenty of other things I’d rather be watching, especially in cases, as with West Side Story and The Sound of Music, where I’ve seen the movies before. I feel like I’m not really adding anything to my life by sitting through them again.

But I’m no cheater, and the rules of this project state that I have to watch every movie, even if I’ve seen it before. Early on, that didn’t matter much, because Casablanca was the only movie I had seen before 1950. As we get closer to the modern era, though, I’ve seen more of the winners, and it can feel a little tedious re-watching things.

This is doubly true when dealing with films that are almost three hours long. I appreciate West Side Story, but I don’t love it, certainly not in the same way that I do The Godfather, which I’m looking forward to seeing again. Perhaps I was a little too resentful of its existence when I watched it this time around, but I’m trying to be fair nevertheless.