87
Metascore
33 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertI was carried along by the wit, the energy and a surprising sweetness.
- 100The New RepublicStanley KauffmannThe New RepublicStanley KauffmannWith most historical films the informed viewer scrutinizes in order to cluck at errors. (There are books full of such cluckings.) With Shakespeare in Love, the more one knows, the more one can enjoy the liberties taken. [Jan. 4, 1999]
- 100Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanEntertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanThe richest and most satisfying romantic movie of the year. It's really about two great loves at once -- the love of life and of art -- and the way that Shakespeare, like no writer before him, transformed the one into the other.
- 90VarietyVarietyExquisitely acted, tightly directed and impressively assembled.
- 90Chicago ReaderLisa AlspectorChicago ReaderLisa AlspectorIt's easy to suspend disbelief and embrace this historically creative fiction, whose clever relationship to what's known and what's unresolved is part of what makes it so intriguing and so romantic.
- The result is a film that is as witty, astute, and romantic as its timeless subject.
- 88USA TodayMike ClarkUSA TodayMike ClarkAccessibly brainy screen charmer.
- These filmmakers have taken a historical figure and made him into a hot-blooded romantic hero. Shakespeare did that a time or two himself.
- 50Christian Science MonitorDavid SterrittChristian Science MonitorDavid SterrittThis romantic farce has a talented cast and energy to spare, but somehow the ingredients don't burn as brightly as one would expect from such promising ingredients.
- 40Village VoiceAmy TaubinVillage VoiceAmy TaubinIt soon becomes evident just how inane a film this is.