- Anonymous. Directed by Roland Emmerich. Starring Rhys Ifans, Vanessa Redgrave, Rafe Spall and Sebastian Armesto.
Rating: 6 (out of 10)
His parents were illiterate, and, more notably, so were his twin children. He wrote with remarkable familiarity of court life, despite his relatively lowly station. And other than the plays that bear Shakespeare's name, no other correspondence exists in his handwriting.
Strange that it should be action-guru Roland Emmerich (2012, The Day After Tomorrow) who brings the authorship question of the planet's most famous wordsmith to the screen.
Modern Shakespeare icon Derek Jacobi lends the theory credibility in the film's prologue, which sees the actor racing to the theatre to introduce the story. We are transported to a world in which playwrights are routinely locked up for lewd conduct and heresy, but the theatre's influence is spreading nonetheless.
"In my world, one does not write plays," says Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford (Rhys Ifans), though you would think that his ink-stained thumb and forefinger would give him away. Writing was more than an ignoble way to pass the time: it was cause for scandal. "The voices, I can't stop them, they come to me," Oxford says in response to his wife's desperate plea that he stop shaming the family. "Are you possessed?" she queries.
The earl approaches playwright Ben Johnson (Sebastian Armesto), paying him to get his work onto the stage. But Johnson's bruised ego results in a ha'penny actor named Will Shakespeare (Rafe Spall) seizing the opportunity to take credit. Johnson is doomed to watch as the earl's plays exceed everyone's imagination, and to stand by as Shakespeare gets rich. Filmmakers paint Shakespeare as a whoring, blackmailing buffoon.
The earl keeps passing along plays. Now they have a political purpose, as questions about who will succeed Queen Elizabeth (Vanessa Redgrave) swirl. Will it be James of Scotland, or Essex? "Since when did words ever win a kingdom?" asks Essex, who has clearly never seen a play. "All art is political, else it would just be decoration," is the reply.
One production in particular is designed to sway public support away from the son of the queen's adviser, the hunchback Robert Cecil (Edward Hogg). In flashbacks we meet a young Cecil and a young Oxford, raised under the same roof, and watch as Elizabeth (the younger version played by Redgrave's daughter Joely Richardson) takes Oxford as her lover. Redgrave shines brightest here, as the Virgin Queen besotted with youth and, to the Cecils' chagrin, plays.
Elsewhere, there isn't much light at all; the film feels claustrophobic and convoluted at times. And there are too many players: Shakespeare scholars may know that the Earl of Southampton is in there because he was a staunch supporter of the theatre (Shakespeare dedicated plays to him) but in the film he's just another long-haired distraction. The play's the thing, after all, and Emmerich would've been wise to trim some of the unnecessary politicking.
Meanwhile, the titillating offstage Greek tragedy becomes more riveting than anything Will could've dreamed up. ("She's sleeping with WHOM?!"). "You never know with the Tudors," is the film's biggest joke, sure to evoke titters from History buffs.
We see highlights from Shakespeare's tragedies and comedies, there is a smattering of historical accuracy (the murder of Christopher Marlowe), and a few fine performances can be found. All in all, Anonymous is light enough for those whose Shakespeare is limited to Coles Notes, and enough of an affront to earnest English Lit majors to keep the authorship debate boiling.
