re: Shakespeare in Love

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The actors are memorable, but as Baloo said the characters are straight out of cliches 'r us.

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I don't really agree with Baloo on that at all. Yes, there is the hard-nosed sergeant, the well loved CO, the outcast soldier, but each character has a backstory. Each character is fleshed out. They may have a cliched basis, as most characters do in every story told since the dawn of modern history, but most are actually well thought out.

The same is true in SIL. Shakespeare is your stereotypical down and out artist with a creative block, Paltrow is the stereotypical character who is different from her peer group trying to live her dream. The story is cliched as well. The down and out artist with a creative block meets the "different" girl and she becomes his muse. They fall in love. The world is shocked by the "different" girl's behavior, but all ends happily. They do have some meat on their bones, though, and the characters are well thought out and real (except, maybe, Ben Affleck's character )

In any case, I disagree with SPR's characters being flat.

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The one execption may have been Opum and the fact that people get pissed that he is paralyzed with fear missed the point. Not everyone is cut out of combat.

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Opum is one of the best characters in the film. I still hate the fact that he let his buddies go without fricking ammo to be ambushed by Nazi soldiers. It makes me want to kick the guy. I understand why Opum was included. I understand not everyone is cut out for combat. shite, Opum had only fired a rifle in basic. He wasn't a Ranger. He didn't storm the beaches of Normandy. It wouldn't make sense for him to be fricking Rambo, but the reason that scene was included was precisely to evoke an emotional response. Opum's cowardice in the face of the enemy is very real, but it's also infuriating and nearly every guy who saw the film wanted to shout "GET THE HELL UP THOSE STAIRS, YOU WHINY LITTLE BITCH!" But he doesn't. He cries. And it's brilliant.