Was William Shakespeare, the greatest playwright in the history of the English language, really a fraud who never wrote any of the famous plays he's credited with? He is, according to the new film Anonymous from 2012 director Roland Emmerich.
The politics of Elizabethan England loom large in this tale by John Orloff, which claims Edward De Vere, the Earl of Oxford (Rhys Ifans), was the true "soul of the age" behind Henry V, Richard III and MacBeth. De Vere's past has left him beholden to his father-in-law, Sir William Cecil (David Thewlis), the oldest and most trusted adviser to Queen Elizabeth I (Vanessa Redgrave, whose daughter Joely Richardson plays the younger queen). A lifelong writer whose ambitions were stifled by his societal status, De Vere seeks to use his art as a political weapon against Cecil and his scheming son, Robert (Edward Hogg).
Unable to use his own name on his plays -- which aim to skewer power players such as the Cecils and rile the people against them -- De Vere asks struggling playwright Ben Jonson (Sebastian Armesto) to be his front man. Jonson, however, can't bring himself to do it, so a skirt-chasing actor named William Shakespeare (Rafe Spall) assumes the role without asking De Vere, ultimately blackmailing him into funding his lifestyle. Their conspiracy takes a turn towards the tragic when shocking old secrets threaten to bring down all involved and to impact the succession to the throne of England.
Much as Oliver Stone's JFK aimed to discredit the Warren Commission's lone gunman conclusion, Anonymous targets the literary sanctity of Shakespeare by offering what Stone might call a "counter-myth" to what is widely accepted as fact. Anonymous is Roland Emmerich's most mature, thoughtful and narrative-driven film, but like JFK it will nevertheless be trashed by those who find its speculative premise preposterous if not sacrilegious. Both Stone and Emmerich give their detractors enough ammunition by exaggerating the facts or outright fictionalizing other elements to make for a better story.
Anonymous is never dull even when it gets mired in the nitty gritty of Elizabeth politics and rebellion, topics that lesser films might have delivered with all the intensity of a sleepy high school history class. Emmerich and Orloff keep you invested in both the "Shakespeare was a fraud" conspiracy theory and the Tudor succession storyline, although it can often be tough to keep track of all the earls and players involved.
If anything, Anonymous is overstuffed to the point of confusing some who don't already possess a rudimentary understanding of that era and its most notable figures, but it's certainly not lacking in ambition and vigor. The film falters in the homestretch with a plot twist that some may find more preposterous than the one about Shakespeare not writing the works attributed to him. It's a whopper, and might be that which pushes any viewer still on the fence about the film firmly into the camp of the detractors.
Ifans is the standout in the cast, capturing the brilliance and mercurial nature of his enigmatic character, while Redgrave brings her expected gravitas to the role of an aging monarch losing control. Spall plays Shakespeare as an illiterate, lecherous killer, which will surely go over great with academics worldwide. Ben Jonson is meant to serve as the eyes of the audience, but his character is the least dynamic and interesting of all; it's too tough for a struggling playwright to stand out when surrounded by such larger-than-life characters. Camelot's Jamie Campbell Bower plays De Vere as a young man, but his resemblance to Jonathan Rhys-Meyers in The Tudors is constantly distracting. Still, it's interesting to see De Vere using his words as aphrodisiacs before he uses them as political weapons. Thewlis and Hogg come thisclose to twirling their mustaches as the Cecils.
Anonymous looks gorgeous, with beautiful costumes, production design and solid special effects work to bring Elizabethan England to life. Emmerich deserves kudos for not destroying the world this time -- only the reputation of western civilization's greatest writer -- but even at his most restrained, Emmerich still goes overboard just enough for the picture to lose control in the last act. The film may piss off more viewers than it wins over, but there's no denying that Anonymous has balls the size of The Globe Theatre.
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