REVIEWS
Anonymous REVIEWED BY MIKE GOODRIDGE
A labour of love for director Roland Emmerich, Anonymous is a historical thriller speculating on the true identity of William Shakespeare, which emerges as a strangely ponderous exercise lacking in the humour and intrigue which might have made it sparkle. Plagued by lapses in sense, eccen- tric casting and a screenplay which is never sure whose perspective to take, the film lumbers along without the playful sense of what makes an audi- ence tick — for which Emmerich is famous. Sony is pitching the film as a mystery with the
tagline “Was Shakespeare A Fraud?” but the film is unlikely to cross into the mainstream, while highbrow critics will sneer. Its box-office prospects are not in the Shakespeare In Love stratosphere, but, with Sony behind the film, richer than indie period tales such as Stage Beauty or The Libertine. The film tells the story of Edward de Vere, Earl of
Oxford, a nobleman who finds himself ensconced in the household of William Cecil, the scheming chief adviser to Queen Elizabeth I. Born with a knack for poetry, he — according to revisionists — wrote the entire Shakesepeare oeuvre. In addition, according to this story, he had a passionate affair with the queen — 16 years his senior — and she had a child from their affair, subsequently adopted by a noble family. Meanwhile Edward, who was forced into a marriage with Cecil’s daughter, is banned from court and discouraged from writing plays. Later in his life, he decides to have the plays per-
formed at the popular London theatre under a pseudonym, and approaches playwright Ben Johnson to pass them off as his own. Johnson, offended at the suggestion, passes them on to ambitious but illiterate actor William Shake- speare, who happily takes on the mantle of play- wright and becomes the toast of London.
SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS
Ger-UK. 2011. 130mins Director Roland Emmerich Production companies Anonymous Pictures, Centropolis Entertainment, Studio Babelsberg International distribution Sony Pictures/SPRI Executive producers Volker Engel, Marc Weigert, John Orloff Producers Roland Emmerich, Larry Franco, Robert Leger Screenplay John Orloff Cinematography Anna J Foerster Production designer Sebastian Krawinkel Editor Peter R Adam Music Thomas Wander, Harald Kloser Main cast Rhys Ifans, Vanessa Redgrave, David Thewlis, Xavier Samuel, Sebastian Armesto, Rafe Spall, Derek Jacobi, Edward Hogg, Mark Rylance, Helen Baxendale, Jamie Campbell Bower, Joely Richardson
there is just not enough cheesy melodrama to make it pop. The actors, all accomplished Brits, have clearly
been directed to play it very straight, where a bit of juicy ham could have livened up proceedings. Ifans is nonetheless impressive as Edward de Vere, and there are some confident turns by Sebastian Armesto as Johnson and Rafe Spall, providing the only comic relief, as Shakespeare. A large support- ing cast includes other notable UK names such as David Thewlis as William Cecil, Edward Hogg as Robert Cecil, Mark Rylance (former director of the new Globe Theatre) and Helen Baxendale. Best of all, perhaps unsurprisingly, are the
The story is wrapped up in an unnecessary
bookend in which Derek Jacobi introduces the story on the Broadway stage and then goes back to a scene in which Johnson is arrested and interro- gated by William Cecil’s son Robert Cecil about the whereabouts of the plays. It then goes further back five years, then 40 years, and back and forth for the rest of the film. What is baffling in this time-hopping scenario
is the casting. Young Edward, about 20 years old, is played by Jamie Campbell Bower, with young(ish) Elizabeth, at 36, played by Joely Rich- ardson. Some 40 years later, Edward has become Rhys Ifans, looking no older than 40, while the queen has become Vanessa Redgrave, looking all of her 75 years. Revelations towards the end of the film about the origins of the characters are not just shocking, but positively soap opera-style jaw- dropping in light of this cast. Emmerich is playing serious in Anonymous and
while there is still plenty of good-old movie clichés — such as the wooden chest full of manuscripts which miraculously escapes a ravaging fire —
n 10 Screen International at the Toronto Film Festival September 11, 2011
design and special effects. Emmerich’s 17th cen- tury London, built on sets and in the computer, is a wonder to behold and the production itself is impeccable. In his blockbuster movies, Emmerich manages to combine these effects with good- natured adventure stories and bring them to life; ironically in this project that is his least expensive and the closest to his heart, he has rendered the proceedings lifeless.
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