Anonymous

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Alex

Well it's certainly a welcome change up for Roland Emmerich, who after destroying the planet in every conceivable way has set his sights on destroying a mere reputation. Was Shakespeare a fraud? Truth be told, I don't really care and the film is gracious enough not to present its story as fact. What I do care about was if the story being told was worth it.

It's entertaining, very slickly produced and has a brilliant cast. Yes, I'd say it was worth it.

The theory the film presents is wedged in a framework of a play being presented in present day. This works thematically and allows some wriggle room with possibly historical inaccuracy, especially when juxtaposed with Shakespeare's own writings of historical drama. In fact some of the revelations towards the end of the film are incredible enough to make them feel more akin to the bard's tragic works rather than a historical fact.

The period has been recreated beautifully and thanks to those wonderful effects artists working on scaled pay after the success of their collaboration with Emmerich on 2012, we get to see beautiful vistas of old england recreated before our eyes. The costumes and sets are all wonderfully detailed.

I barely recognised Rhys Ifans as the Earl of Oxford. Rafe Spall is delightfully annoying as this version of William Shakespeare and real life mother and daughter Vanessa Redgrave and Joely Richardson breath new life into Queen Elizabeth I over numerous time periods.

Did I mention the time periods? Not only does the film have a present day bookend, but the the story has it's own bookends plus it jumps freely back and fourth in time throughout. It takes its time to settle into place and is a little annoying at first. I'm not sure what it adds to the proceedings either.

I loved the score for this films one sex scene, it was intriguing and a little unusual. The rest of the music was rather mundane. Minor complaints though, technically the film is very proficient. It certainly has more glorious 3D matte paintings and wide views than any stuffy period drama I've ever seen. While I'm sure Emmerich is itching to get back to destroying the world this diversion proved to be very fruitful. Regardless of what you think of the theory it presents, it's sure to hold your attention.