John Madden is strongest when he lets a company of actors get on with being vain, funny and fallible. We enjoy his generosity to performers; the tidiness of Shakespeare in Love is less appealing.
Fi1m perspective
In Shakespeare in Love (1998), Ben Affleck’s Ned Alleyn brings an actor’s self-importance to a workplace already crowded with it. John Madden gives him room, just as he does Geoffrey Rush’s Philip Henslowe and Tom Wilkinson’s Hugh Fennyman. We laughed at the way their practical concerns keep interrupting the supposedly important business of inspiration. This is Madden at his most persuasive: letting performers be vain, busy and ridiculous without making them contemptible. His fondness for actors makes the film worth an evening, even when its romance seems too carefully arranged.
Mrs Brown (1997) established his collaboration with Judi Dench before Shakespeare in Love reached an international audience. The later career has moved between literary adaptations and ensemble dramas, rather than settling on period romance. There is room in it for both Proof (2005) and the older ensemble of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2012). That continued interest in groups of performers tells us more about Madden than the period costumes do. Operation Mincemeat (2022), a wartime deception drama, is another return to historical material.
Much of what works in Shakespeare in Love begins with Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard’s screenplay, which treats the theatre as somewhere people earn a living. Madden’s contribution is to let money, status and competing demands matter alongside the lovers. The supporting actors are not hurried out of the way when the romance needs attention. Dench’s brisk Queen Elizabeth is particularly useful in a film otherwise so keen to please. The literary jokes remain enjoyable without requiring the audience to recognise every reference.
The limit is how neatly the romance fits the work it is supposed to inspire. Shakespeare’s love affair supplying material for Romeo and Juliet is a good comic idea, but the screenplay sometimes pauses as if waiting for its cleverness to be noticed. Madden permits that, and the film takes few risks once its appealing company is assembled. We would not mistake his ease with actors for a guarantee that every story will feel alive. Start with Shakespeare in Love for the theatre people; expect the lovers to be rather more tidily managed.
Biography
John Madden is an English director of theatre, film, television and radio. Born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, he was educated at Clifton College and graduated from Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, in 1970 with a B.A. in English Literature.
He began his career in British independent films and television, directing episodes of Inspector Morse (from 1987) and Prime Suspect (1991 series, including Prime Suspect 4 in 1995). His feature film Shakespeare in Love (1998) won the Academy Award for Best Picture; Madden received a nomination for Best Director.
Subsequent films include The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2012), The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2015), Miss Sloane (2016) and Operation Mincemeat (2022).
