Many films have been made from the works of William Shakespeare, so it’s puzzling that it took long for a movie exploring the question of the man himself. What’s more surprising is that it was written by a man with just a handful of credits, including the insipid “A Mighty Heart,” and directed by the man who gave us the blockbusters “Independence Day” and “The Day After Tomorrow.”
And despite the high production values — it’s not often you see a literary costume drama with a big budget for computer-generated images — “Anonymous” is, sadly, just what you’d expect from John Orloff and Roland Emmerich. The film looks “wondrous,” to resurrect the wonderful word playwright Ben Jonson (Sebastian Armesto) uses to describes the Bard of Avon here. But it’s all style and no substance — a terrible tribute to the greatest writer ever to work in the English language (and perhaps any other).
| ON SCREEN |
| ‘Anonymous’ |
| » Rating: 2 out of 4 stars |
| » Starring: Rhys Ifans, Vanessa Redgrave, Sebastian Armesto |
| » Director: Roland Emmerich |
| » Rated: PG-13 for some violence and sexual content |
| » Running time: 130 minutes |
Almost everyone knows the bare details of Shakespeare’s life — born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564, made his way to London to act and finally write, died back in Stratford in 1616, leaving his second-best bed to his wife. It’s his relatively humble beginnings and lack of education and travel that have, over the years, led critics to question whether the man named Shakespeare really wrote the plays attributed to him. It’s strange that these doubts linger in this egalitarian age; there’s clearly a class prejudice at work here. Especially when the name most touted as the “real Shakespeare” is that of a nobleman, Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford.
In fact, “Anonymous” posits not only that Oxford is the real author of the plays, but wrote and had them performed in part to solve the secession question.
The fate of England is a question serious enough for its own film — as is the identity of the realm’s best writer. Emmerich can’t be faulted for lack of ambition. But what’s lost in the machinations is the sense of Shakespeare himself. There are some thrilling scenes in which we see what it was like to be one of the first people to hear the Bard’s words performed onstage. Emmerich’s lack of interest in what Shakespeare actually wrote can be summed up this way: The genius Shakespearean actor Derek Jacobi is used only as the narrator for a brief prologue and epilogue. He doesn’t get a chance to act or bring the Bard to life.
I could offer a long list of the historical inaccuracies in the film.But the inaccuracies aren’t actually the biggest problem in a film that purports to offer an argument for the true identity of the greatest dramatist to live. “Words, merely words, will be my legacy,” says a regretful Oxford on his deathbed. It seems as though Emmerich agrees with that rotten assessment.
