A Waste of Shame (2005)

A Waste of Shame addresses the question of who might have been the inspiration for the Shakespearean sonnets. With its sincere, careful, historically faithful treatment (on a budget), this is no codswallop. It is also no Fast and Furious; understand that this is a studied examination of the world's greatest writer's relationship with a beautiful prostitute (whom he does not so much pine for from a distance but shag) and also a young earl who may be even more beautiful (whom Shakespeare does pine for but never gets to express or act on his feelings). A bisexual Shakespeare should not be a stretch for any literate person. In any event, there is a lot of sitting alone writing, or talking with others about writing, or talking with others about life, and the occasional shagging. So see this movie if you consider yourself literate or intelligent, but skip it if you have never read Shakespeare, or if you tend to see movies but never read the books (Tolkien, Rowling, and so on), or if the sight of sex makes you shrivel up like a prude, I mean, prune. 3 stars. (2-22-2017)