Rhys Ifans with real verve and strength of conviction plays Edward de Vere, the Earl of Oxford, a nobleman who can't be seen writing poems and plays because that doesn't befit his station in life. So he hires first, a struggling Ben Johnson, but eventually an illiterate buffoon of an actor named William Shakespeare to do the job.
The film oscillates back and forth between corseted soap opera about the next heir to the Elizabethan throne (a grand Vanessa Redgrave as the dotty, aging queen) and a zippy thriller worry that someone will expose Oxford as the real writer. Directed by Roland Emmerich, the pageantry and luscious era of clothing and sets are created with wonderful detail and great results. And give good credit to Emmerich for really pushing himself outside of his box of disaster flicks and faux historical epics.
By the end of 130 minutes though, all of these elements begin to feel unyielding. There is too many loose ends that need to be tied up and dealt with, there's too many characters that have motivations and opinions, too much of the drama (there's a particular moment late in the film that is the biggest eyeroll of unnecessary mawkish soap opera melodrama ever!) that it begins to tire you out. I also wish they would have tried to get some bigger names to play these roles.
It's a far more mainstream picture than it actually looks, but I can't deny being an English major and having studied all these different authors and time periods didn't hurt my cause. It's certainly more Da Vinci Code than it is Shakespeare in Love, but it's a lot of fun, and Anonymous is sure to annoy as many as it enthralls. Grade: B
No comments:
Post a Comment