Review of Anonymous (2011) by Manny C — 21 Feb 2012

William Shakespeare wrote all of his plays correct? Or was it Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford? For decades that conundrum has been the stuff of academic theses, but in Anonymous, it's a film filled with scandal, betrayal and sex. Anonymous is the latest from director Roland Emmerich, the guy who gets of on disaster epics like The Day After Tomorrow and 2012. but the only thing that goes up in an explosion in Anonymous is historical fact and plausibility. All I can say for Emmerich when he's attempting straight up drama is that he's not stuffy. Part of that must be credited to his excellent cast. Welsh actor Rhys Ifans (Notting Hill) is the famed Earl and he digs into the role with real fire. He writes all of the eloquent plays and poetry that came to be known as Shakespearean, but if it were to become knowledge that he is the author, disgrace would plague the royal line. Rather than slap on the anonymous label, he first tries to coax playwright Ben Jonson (Sebastian Armesto), but he passes. So the Earl signs on Will Shakespeare (Rafe Spall--totally hammy) an illiterate comic actor. Soon Queen Elizabeth herself gets into the act, played first in her youth by Joely Richardson and later by Richardson's mother, the amazing Vanessa Redgrave, who beds more than the Earl's manuscripts to bed with her.

Emmerich throws in one conspiracy after another as if Glenn Beck were writing the script. The Queen's puritan advisor William Cecil (David Thewlis) schemes with his hunchback son to takeover the throne. None of it sticks. Despite the great cast, Anonymous is just dramatic theory worthy of the History Channel. It'd all be sinful fun, if Emmerich weren't fully convinced he's presenting fact.