William Shakespeare. Greatest writer ever? I think it's fair to say that's obvious. Do I believe all these theories that he wasn't really a writer, that somebody else did? Personally, I really don't care who wrote the plays. For all I know, there never has been a William Shakespeare. All that matters are his works. However, it can be quite fun to get swept away in these theories. That's what I was hoping for from this film, to get swept away in the conspiracy theory of the authorship if Shakespeare's plays. And I was swept away. I immensely enjoyed this film, despite its flaws.
Let me start with the positives. Rhys Ifans and Jaime Campbell Bower both play Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, at different points in his life, and both do a great job. This is their best role for both, and while neither will receive an Academy Award nomination for this film, they both definitely do a good job. Vanessa Redgrave and Joely Richardson both play Queen Elizabeth 1, and both also do a great job, Redgrave in particular. If you were to ask me who the best actor in the film was, I'd say Redgrave. She plays Elizabeth like a fun-loving woman, despite her age and perilous situation. She was one of the most enjoyable parts of this film. The rest of the cast also did a good job, but I'd like to talk about the actor they got to play Shakespeare, Rafe Spall. I'd never heard of Rafe Spall before, and watching the trailers, I assumed that Jason Lee was playing Shakespeare in this film, with an English accent. The resemblance in freakishly uncanny. If you're wondering what Rafe Spall did before this film, he's known for his collaborations with Edgar Wright. Here's a picture of his role in Shaun of the Dead.
And here's a picture of him in Anonymous.
I don't think this is the same person. I swear to god, Jason Lee is in this film.
Now, the writing. The writer, John Orloff, states that Shakespeare didn't write those plays, but de Vere did. This is known as the Oxfordian theory, as de Vere was the Earl of Oxford. The particular theory he uses is the Prince Tudor Theory, which is the same theory, but states that the Earl of Southampton was also the son of him and Queen Elizabeth I. The writing is quite good, but if you are someone who hates these theories, you'll hate this film. And while I do enjoy the writing, I found a big problem with a twist at the end. To all who know the twist, I'll attempt to write in code, to protect those who don't know the twist. If W.C. was his father, then not only was he with his mother, but sister as well. Why didn't they mention that?
The directing was my only real problem with this film. I've never really liked Roland Emmerich, so I haven't seen a lot of his films. I've only seen Stargate, 2012, and The Day After Tomorrow. His films were always just big disaster films, nothing really special. I admire him for trying something different, but his directing is the only bad part of this. For the majority of outside shots, he chooses to use green screen. Everything shot inside, he shot in beautifully made sets, but everything outside is horrific green screen. Considering how he made some of the best special effects in film recently, you think he'd make his green screen look good. But no, he doesn't. He didn't really do anything good here, and he was the only thing I didn't like about this film.
Overall, I immensely enjoyed this film. The acting was brilliant, the writing, terrific, but the directing really brought it down. Regardless, I found this to be a great political thriller, while also being about the greatest writer who ever lived. If you support the theories, you'll probably love this film, and if you don't, you'll probably hate this film. I don't really care if Shakespeare really wrote the plays or not, I just enjoy them, as well as this film. This film earns a 7.5/10 from me.
P.S. The Derek Jacobi stuff works in the beginning, because it's interesting to think that the modern day Shakespearean actor (aside from maybe Kenneth Branagh) is talking about how Shakespeare never wrote anything, but fails in the end, because of how unbelievably cheesy it gets, and the fact that it was a major play on Broadway, and yet no one applauded.
P.S. The Derek Jacobi stuff works in the beginning, because it's interesting to think that the modern day Shakespearean actor (aside from maybe Kenneth Branagh) is talking about how Shakespeare never wrote anything, but fails in the end, because of how unbelievably cheesy it gets, and the fact that it was a major play on Broadway, and yet no one applauded.
No comments:
Post a Comment