[[quoteright:188:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Shakespeare_In_Love_2734.jpg]]

The ShakespeareInFiction RomanticComedy that somehow won Best Picture of 1998 at the AcademyAwards, surprising all those who were backing ''SavingPrivateRyan''. Often cited nowadays as one of the greatest {{award snub}}s in the history of the Oscars.

Meet Creator/WilliamShakespeare (Joseph Fiennes), aspiring playwright who can't find the inspiration to write another ScrewballComedy, and works for a theater that needs money, badly. In the bed of his mistress, Rosaline, he tries to find inspiration for a comedy titled ''[[RomeoAndJuliet Romeo and Ethel the Pirate's Daughter]]''. Meanwhile, Viola De Lesseps (Gwyneth Paltrow), a noblewoman engaged to marry an entrepreneur in the Americas, dreams of the stage but is frustrated, because women are banned from the boards. However, she goes out to audition anyway, dressed up as a boy, and is astounded when she gets the part... of [[WholesomeCrossdresser Romeo]]. Tension soon erupts between her and the suddenly single Will, and [[HilarityEnsues Hilarity, Angst, Secrecy, and a Little Sex Ensue.]] Much like a Shakespeare comedy, you might say.

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!!This film provides examples of:
* AristocratsAreEvil: Viola's husband is a total scumbag. Queen Elizabeth, on the other hand, is hard but fair.
* BittersweetEnding:[[spoiler: While Shakespeare and Viola don't end up together, both seem very optimistic about their respective fates. Viola survives her trip to the colonies while her unloved husband drowns with his money. The film ends with Shakespeare writing ''Theatre/TwelfthNight'' as Viola strolls onto the shore of America echoing the scene that Shakespeare writes.]]
* CastingGag: Ben Affleck has a minor role, playing a big-name actor who is tricked into taking a minor role.
--> '''Shakespeare:''' You, sir, are a gentleman.
--> '''Alleyn:''' And you, sir, are a Warwickshire shithouse.
* CatchPhrase: "I don't know... it's a mystery."
* CoitusUninterruptus
* DeusExMachina: Queen Elizabeth I. Of course, there wasn't as much of a stigma attached to the trope back in Shakespeare's day -- many of his plays had a duke or prince showing up in the last act to pass judgment and ensure a happy ending -- so it could be justified by the GrandfatherClause.
* DidNotGetTheGirl: [[DoomedByCanon You should know this already.]]
* DriverOfABlackCab: Rower of A Thames Ferry Boat.
-->"I had Christopher Marlowe in my boat once."
* FakeBrit: The Australian Geoffrey Rush, American Ben Affleck and American Gwyneth Paltrow, among others.
* [[FollowThatCar Follow That Boat!]]
* GondorCallsForAid:
-->"The Master of the Revels despises us all for vagrants and peddlers of bombast. But my father, James Burbage, had the first license to make a company of players from Her Majesty; and he drew from poets the literature of the age. We must show them that we are men of parts. Will Shakespeare has a play. I have a theater. [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming The Curtain is yours.]]"
* GoodAdulteryBadAdultery: Shakespeare is married and Viola is engaged to Lord Wessex, but Lord Wessex is marrying for money and Anne Hathaway is in Stratford-upon-Avon.
* HeReallyCanAct: an in-universe example as the LoanShark Fennyman wormed his way into the performance as the Apothecary. Shown nervous and worried beforehand, when the scene comes Fennyman gives an incredible performance that stuns Shakespeare.
* HeyItsThatGuy: Quite a few, including [[HarryPotter Arthur Weasley]].
** [[PrideAndPrejudice Mr. Darcy]] is an evil husband!?
** [[Film/BatmanBegins Carmine Falcone]] tortures [[PiratesOfTheCaribbean Captain Barbossa]] in order to get him to pay his debts.
** Before [[DowntonAbbey Carson]] became a butler, he was an actor and dressed up as old women.
** DocMartin is Shakespeare's rival.
** [[HarryPotter Dolores Umbridge]] is Viola's nurse.
* HistoricalDomainCharacter: [[TheVirginQueen Elizabeth I]], Creator/ChristopherMarlowe, John Webster, Shakespeare himself, not to mention the entire cast of ''Romeo and Juliet.''
* HistoricalInJoke: Tied with GeniusBonus.
* HistoricalPersonPunchline: The boy who wants to write violent plays is actually John Webster.
* ImpoverishedPatrician
* InterruptedIntimacy: A RunningJoke.
* KingIncognito: [[spoiler: Queen Elizabeth and her attendants go to the performance of ''Romeo and Juliet'' in disguise.]]
* LampshadedDoubleEntendre: In the grand Shakespearian tradition, penis jokes:
-->'''Will''': "It's as if my quill is broken, as if the organ of my imagination has dried up, as if the proud tower of genius is collapsed. Nothing comes. It's like trying to pick a lock with a wet herring."
-->'''Dr. Moth''': Tell me, are you lately humbled in the act of love? How long has it been?
-->'''Will''': A goodly length, in times past, but, lately...
* LoanShark: The movie opens with Fennyman the Moneylender torturing the owner of the Rose for his unpaid debts. He ends up being enamoured of the theatre.
* MoodWhiplash: A few examples:
** One minute, the troupe is carousing in a local bar/brothel, the next, Henslowe mentions Shakespeare's wife in passing, and Viola takes off. Then one of the actors comes in with the news that Marlowe has been killed, and Shakespeare thinks he's responsible because he gave Wessex Marlowe's name as a pseudonym, and told him that he's been visiting his future wife.
*** Don't forget [[spoiler:the scene where Shakespeare learns the truth behind Marlowe's death. He holds Wessex at knifepoint and loudly proclaims him to be Marlowe's murderer... only to be informed that Marlowe actually died in a bar fight over his tab, after getting [[EyeScream a knife through the eye]].]]
** After Shakespeare explains how RomeoAndJuliet takes a turn for the worse:
-->'''HENSLOWE:''' *deadpan* Well, that'll have 'em rolling in the aisles.
** Another example comes after [[spoiler:Tilney closes the Rose because they were unknowingly letting Viola act.]] Fennyman comes in, still wrapped up in trying to memorize his lines, and asks "Everything all right?"
* TheMuse
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Shakespeare, when he thinks he got Marlowe killed by Wessex.
* NobilityMarriesMoney: Viola, a daughter of a wealthy merchant, marries Lord Wessex, who needs money.
* OhCrap: Romeo and Juliet, debut performance. At stake, Shakespeare's entire reputation. [[spoiler: Will, playing Romeo, is in the depths of despair; Sam, the boy supposed to play Juliet, has just hit puberty with a horrifically broken voice; and as the curtain rises, the actor reciting the Prologue can't get out a single word in his stuttering panic.]] The fifteen or twenty seconds that follows is one drawn-out OhCrap moment before he starts off what has to be the most touching version of RomeoAndJuliet ever to be performed onscreen.
* OscarBait: An English period piece, featuring (however briefly) a royal. Works every time.
* PimpedOutDress: It's Elizabethan days. What do you expect? It's actually in the script that Viola's dress be literally stunning.
* PlayingAgainstType: Colin Firth in a period romantic comedy... as the PrinceCharmless whom you ''don't'' want the heroine to end up with.
* RealLifeRelative: Husband and wife team of Jim Carter (Ralph Bashford) and Imelda Staunton (Nurse).
* RecursiveCrossdressing
* TheRenaissance
* RichSuitorPoorSuitor: Struggling playwright Shakespeare vs. rich Lord Wessex
* RomanticComedy
* ARoundOfDrinksForTheHouse: The producer orders one before exclaiming "Oh, [[AnachronismStew happy hour!]]"
* ShakespeareInFiction: Here, he's young, charismatic, melancholy, mostly lovelorn, and looking for a muse.
* ShapedLikeItself: "That woman is a woman!"
* ShoutOutToShakespeare: Obviously.
* ShownTheirWork
* SlowClap
* StarMakingRole: If you didn't know about Gwyneth Paltrow before, you did after it came out.
* StutteringIntoEloquence : Wabash, introducing the play.
* SweetPollyOliver
* VirginVision: The Queen has it, unfortunately.
* WholesomeCrossdresser: Viola and Sam, the actor who is cast as Juliet.
* WritersBlockMontage: Played with. Our first shot of Will sees him busily and confidently scribbling away, and we cut to his paper to see that he's just trying out different signatures over and over (A HistoricalInJoke on the famously inconsistent signatures we have records of.) However, he ''does'' crumple up a sheet of parchment and toss it away moodily - only for it to land next to a very {{Hamlet}}-esque skull.
* TakeThat: Fennyman proposes to Henslowe that the actors get paid for the play from the nonexistent profits the company will receive, a swipe at Hollywood's rather [[HollywoodAccounting loose accounting procedures]].
* YoungFutureFamousPeople
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