On Demand picks

SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE

(Encore on Comcast) The best backstage comedy ever made. It’s delightful for other reasons, too. Never has a script had so much fun filling in the gaps in the life of a cultural icon as this one does imagining what went into the writing of “Romeo and Juliet.’’ Joseph Fiennes is an amusingly soulful Shakespeare, Gwyneth Paltrow is luminous as the high-born woman he was thinking of when he wrote Juliet and the supporting players are unfailingly zestful, too, from Judi Dench’s high-spirited Elizabeth to Ben Affleck’s droll matinee idol to Geoffrey Rush’s desperate theater owner. (R; runs through Feb. 11)