Shakespeare in Love

In 1593 London, Master William Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes), an up-and-coming playwright and sonneteer, is not nearly as well-known as his counterpart, Christopher Marlowe (Rupert Everett), so William's current writer's block does not help him or the owner of the Rose Theatre, Philip Henslowe (Geoffrey Rush), for whom Will generally writes his plays--when the plague, or Henslowe's financial problems, has not closed the theater. That current unwritten play commissioned is a comedy tentatively titled "Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate's Daughter". Will's block is partly due to the loss of his muse, his mistress, who he caught in bed with another man, he having a mistress. Will begins to write again, and passionately, when he falls in love with Viola De Lesseps (Gwyneth Paltrow), who comes from a well-respected, well-off family. Shakespeare also learns that Viola and Thomas Kent, the young man who recently joined the company of the Rose, are one and the same, Viola masquerading as a man to infiltrate the theater world, a domain purely for the male sex, as she is in love with the written word, especially Shakespeare's. She also falls in love with Shakespeare the man and Shakespeare the writer. Without telling Henslowe or egotistical actor Ned Alleyn (Ben Affleck), an egotistical actor, Will is realizing that the play is neither the comedy "Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate's Daughter" nor one called "Mercutio"--the name of Alleyn's character--but is morphing into a love story called "Romeo and Juliet", the love based on his mutual feelings for Viola. Beyond her continuing to masquerade as Thomas Kent, their own love story has a major obstacle in that she is betrothed to Lord Wessex (Colin Firth), a man she detests and a union sanctioned by her merchant father and Queen Elizabeth (Dame Judi Dench) primarily for financial and business purposes. The mounting of the play, Viola and Will's personal love affair, and their professional collaboration as playwright Will Shakespeare and actor "Thomas Kent" are set against the cutthroat business side of 16th-century English show business.