Review of All Is True (2018) by Kenr — 12 Feb 2020

It’s curious that we have a movie about William Shakespeare bearing a name like All Is True when the largest portion of it may well not be. But of course, how could any of this be known when it all took place so very long ago and, so little survives or had been recorded about the famous Bard. Writer Ben Elton has donned both his creative hats for this concoction – that of total fictional fabrication and ‘what we think to know’ presumptions. Director/actor Kenneth Branagh while wanting to accurately transcribe the times may have forgotten that it’s also important to entertain his audience and allow them to enjoy the visual treats of sets, costumes, and creating a mood via creative lighting. His sets are so gloomily lit there’s a tenancy to lull the viewer to sleep. A particularly slow pace could even leave some reaching for the 2 x times remote. This need not have been - broad subjects such as this, set in dark times, under other great lighting/cameramen have allowed us to be transported back to bygone candle/gaslight days by using deep blacks and well-lit subjects that allowed viewers to feel the era and enjoy the rich moods simultaneously. For an artificial interpretation of reality, a thinking audience will forgive any production that considers their visual appreciation over sombre moods.

Modern liberties seem to have been catered for by suggesting that Will’s Sonnets may have been written for another bloke – in this case, the Earle of Southampton. Not sure where Elton came up with this suggestion as there doesn’t appear all that much documentation to build on that assumption. We learn that Mr Shakespeare did not attend University, somewhat proving that a University degree can’t always account for intelligence, and that his wife Anne was illiterate. There are other family intrigues to offer personal interest but what promised to be an enlightening experience comes across as a tad too heavy-handed and at times inaccessible. Performances are good but still remains for dedicated Shakespeare followers only, and some won’t even last the distance – it’s not that it's overlong, just takes it’s time telling its (largely fabricated) story.