Best Actress: Gwyneth Paltrow
Best Picture winner, my Aunt Fannie!
Best Actress winner, however, a more respectable choice. Shakespeare in Love did not deserve to win Best Picture, that's not a controversial or hot take, it's basically fact. It should've been Saving Private Ryan, and we all know it.
But Gwyneth Paltrow had a legendary run in the '90s, and I feel like this win is so well deserved despite the bum rap she gets for her acceptance speech, for the dirty politics and campaigning that went on between the two films, and for whatever the public projected onto her.
For all its faults, with anachronisms and liberties with settled history and biography, Shakespeare in Love is a pretty tight, engaging story of William Shakespeare falling in love with a fictional noblewoman named Viola who winds up leaving a mark on how history remembers the Bard.
Gwyneth is a beautiful, engaging canvas on which to display the ambitions a woman might have gone to in order to have a bit of freedom and adventure at the time; she's a respectable heroine and a fine tragic figure, and despite knowing that she's entirely fictional, you can't help but root for Viola and hope that she gets a modicum of a happy ending that Shakespeare dreams up for her.
I truly wish that Gwyneth would've continued acting at her '90s pace, because she's such a fascinating actress. So many wonderful performances in the '90s. She held her own in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, despite the fact that I still haven't seen any of the Iron Man films, so I'm only basing this statement on when she appears in Avengers films. She was the bright spot of Marty Supreme, in my opinion, and should've gotten an Oscar nomination for the role. Gwyneth, leave GOOP behind, I'm begging you! We need you on the big screen again!
Gwyneth was nominated against Cate Blanchett (Elizabeth), Fernanda Montenegro (Central Station), Meryl Streep (One True Thing) and Emily Watson (Hilary and Jackie). I would be hardpressed to pass over Cate Blanchett, but Gwyneth's performance is so wonderful here. Also a big fan of her Ralph Lauren gown!
DID I LIKE SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE? Yes, in spite of itself.
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Did you like Shakespeare in Love? What are your thoughts on Gwyneth Paltrow's Oscar win?
Keep up with all my Rewatching the Best Actresses posts here.
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