“Shakespeare In Love, 20 February 1999 (1998), theater Very strong film with Joseph Fiennes, Gwyneth Paltrow, Geoffrey Rush (the man who can do anything in film!), and Judy Dench along with a fine supporting cast including Ben Affleck (the weakest of the bunch—its always a Yank). This is a lovely (if excessively complete and resolved) conceit by Tom Soppard (he of Rosencrantz and Gildenstern let me make a living off of Shakespeare forever) about a fictive affair between Shakespeare and a well-born lady that makes Romeo and Juliet happen. Embarrassing when I realized I didn’t get some (well, probably, many) of the lines from other Shakespeare pieces, but its still lots of fun. Paltrow is beautiful and does a good job, Rush is superb as always, all the supporting cast have their chops, and Joseph Fiennes is much better and more credible than in his (I felt) relatively weak work in “Elizabeth” Thirteen Academy Award nominations are a giant pat by Hollywood on its own back for having “culcha.”