Shakespeare In Love: Collector's Edition

Shakespeare in Love is the story of Will Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes), a playwright with writer's block who is in search of his gift that has since left him. It's a case of lack of inspiration and no matter how hard he tries, it's just not coming to him until he begins to audition actors for a play he is writing for his friend Henslow (Geoffrey Rush). An actor comes in who captures his ear and upon leaving the audition in a hurry, our Will begins a chase to find this actor, Thomas Kent (Gwyneth Paltrow) and is led to the home of Viola, a beautiful woman who's passion it is to become an actress.

Well, once the jig is up, Will let's Viola continue her rehersals as Thomas Kent as she plays the part perfectly in both his play and his life. What ensues is your typical love story whereby the heroin is about to marry the evil Lord Wessex (Colin Firth) only to be in love with her romantic leading man, William. Does this farytale end with Shakespeare classic Romeo and Juliet becoming a hit and does our leading man capture the heart of our leading 'man' for ever after? Well, one outcome is now a classic.

Ok, I may have bagged the other 2 universal reviews I've done of late but this transfer outshines them by far. This is truly a splendid transfer in every sense. At times it would seem difficult to produce such a perfect image yet this disc really shines through.

Firstly, there is the excellent black level and shadow detail. No matter how dark the scene can get, there's always correct detail in there. Secondly there is the color and vividness of the picture. What stood out the most for me was the purples and blues and greens. Heck, every color under the sun had its 15 minutes of fame in this flick.

This is truly a good looking disc and one to savor as being region 4 PAL enhanced. It's a combination of all the elements that makes a dvd transfer so good as compared to every other video format out there at the moment.

BUT, it does not receive a 10 due to the ever-popular aliasing effect. Now this usually occurs around scenes with blinds or any lines slightly tilted off horizontal but it was very noticeable in the opening scene as the camera pans around the Rose theatre and focuses onto a pamhplet on the ground. Now, this is not the 'you'll need to look closely to spot' scenario. I noticed it immeadiately and before I could say a word my wife uttered the immortal "What's wrong with the picture". I guess this left a sour sting in my perceptive eye for the rest of the film.

The film did recover, but like an excuse for missing viagra pills, the party was over before it had even begun.

A very good soundtrack that suited the film perfectly. It's not demo quality but as a compliment to the visuals, it was the perfect partner.

Surround detail was of the subtle variety with the market streets providing some entertaing use of all channels whilst the musical score wrapped you into the scene itself.

Dialogue was always clear and shakespeare never sounded so well balanced to the rest of the material being presented.

• 2 Audio Commentaries
  The first is by director John Madden who provides a mediocre look at the film from his point of view. Any insight you may have been expecting is not really found in this track. The second is not actually a commentary track per-se but more a collection of interviews from a wide variety of cast and crew, nothing to do with what we see on the screen.

• Special Featurette - Shakespeare In Love And On Film
  

  I quite enjoyed this little 20 minute feature. What intrigued me the most was that it was one of the better looking transfers for a featurette I had seen in a long time.

• Special Featurette - Academy Award-Winning Costume
  

  A small interview with the costumer designer. 2 minutes worth that could have been added into the above featurette.

• 3/1 Deleted Scenes
  

  Basically an alternate ending, the one in the movie is better, 2 extended scenes from the movie and a small out-take of a scene whereby our drunken cast have a little fun.

• 21 TV Spots
  

  Once you get through the first few you hanker for the rest of them to be over and done with. Not sure why this was included other than being a digital archive of all the promotional material for the movie thus far.

• The usual suspect
  - a thatrical trailer

Didn't see this at the cinemas, didn't want to, don't like Gwyneth Paltrow and not a great fan of Shakespeare. That's what I've felt ever since this movie made it to the big screen. I've have differing opinions from different people about what they thought of the movie but no-one thought it was incredible. The most I got out of someone was, "It is a good movie", yet right before I sat down to watch this I thought 'Ignore everything I've thought and heard and just enjoy it for what it is going to be'. A weird concept but I did enjoy it nonetheless. As for my wife, her evaluation went from good, great, excellent to "I thought it was fantastic, I really enjoyed it" all in the space of 5 minutes.