'Anonymous' review

Rhys Ifans (Credit: Reiner Bajo/Sony)

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Writing has been a lifelong passion for the Earl of Oxford, Edward De Vere (Rhys Ifans), but the pursuit is beneath his social status in 16th-century England. So he pens masterful plays in secret, allowing buffoonish actor William Shakespeare (Rafe Spall) to take the credit. Among those in the know about De Vere’s true talents: Queen Elizabeth I (Vanessa Redgrave), whose own secrets include a love affair with the teenage De Vere (Jamie Campbell Bower) when she was a young woman (Joely Richardson).

The buzz: The true authorship of the work credited to Shakespeare has long been debated, with notable names from Mark Twain to Sigmund Freud doubting we know the truth. It turns out that disaster movie specialist Roland Emmerich (“Independence Day,” “2012”) is another skeptic, which partly explains why he’s the unlikely one directing this film scripted by John Orloff (who, perhaps tellingly, previously wrote both the gripping true story “A Mighty Heart” and the ludicrous fantasy “Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole”).

The verdict: The swirl of historical conspiracy theories in “Anonymous” are about as easy to swallow as the entirety of “The Da Vinci Code,” which would be fine if it was actually entertaining. After all, “Shakespeare in Love” proved playing fast and loose with the very same times can have its own rewards. But “Anonymous” wants desperately to be both a persuasive historical argument and a grand Hollywood entertainment. The uneasy combination leads to a film so convoluted, self-important and overwrought that it’s like a full season of a cheesy, soapy Showtime costume drama condensed into two hours. Emmerich at least deserves credit for stepping outside the Hollywood norm with such an idiosyncratic project, and if the result isn’t particularly good, it’s also not the epic folly some might have predicted. The vividly realized production design and dimly lit cinematography creates a visual palette that’s simultaneously rich and gritty in a way few period pieces achieve. There are also several smart choices in casting, beginning with Ifans—best known for goofy supporting parts like Hugh Grant’s “Notting Hill” flatmate—in a commanding lead role. The canny use of mother and daughter Redgrave and Richardson as Queen Elizabeth I also pays off with strong individual turns from both actresses and a welcome sense of continuity in the film’s flashback-heavy structure. Bower proves less convincing as the younger De Vere, but the least effective performance is Spall’s caricatured, and largely sidelined, Shakespeare—a comic oaf that the Bard himself may have invented in a far less irritating fashion. The general conceit of “Anonymous” is to show how the life of the true author of the Shakespeare canon mirrored the work. But in trying to make a bio-pic of Shakespearean proportions, “Anonymous” can’t help but look like a fraud.

Did you know? Among the noted Shakespearean actors in the cast are Sir Derek Jacobi, who introduces and closes out the film in a modern day setting, and recent Tony winner Mark Rylance, who was the first artistic director of the reconstructed Shakespeare’s Globe in London and credibly plays one of the era’s best stage performers.

Follow Metromix's Geoff Berkshire on Twitter: @geoffberkshire

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