The parallels of the two men and their literary works of genius are certainly there. Much like Shakespeare In Love, Young Goethe portrays the literary giant as a young man, listless, wandering, his genius untapped as he tries to find himself in the world. And much like Shakespeare In Love, Young Goethe was drawn from a mostly fictitious take on real events in the early life of the German poet. So, yeah, it's pretty much Germany's version of Shakespeare In Love. But it works.