Rating: 4/5 Stars
It appears that the billion dollar movie industry of Hollywood has exhausted any possibly original ideas, leaving their creative engine chugging along at a sluggish pace. Audiences have been force fed remakes, sequels, prequels, spin-offs, based-off-true-stories and inspired-by-novels films with such frequency that they are now, well… tired.
So with all the vampire and wizarding wonder that has played across the silver screen, producers have decided to turn historical theories into live action flicks. (What’s next? Can we also expect an odyssey about Homer?)
Anonymous explores the hypothesis that literary figure William Shakespeare is not the author of all those legendary plays and sonnets with his name on them, but rather, nobleman Edward De Vere, the earl of Oxford, is.
Surprisingly, Anonymous is a great film.
Directed by Roland Emmerich (Independence Day, 2012), this political thriller expresses the power of words and is a true manifestation of the metonymy ‘the pen is mightier than the sword.’
The turn of the sixteenth century is the backdrop for the Elizabethan film, and the stage is set in London during the declining years of the Tudor dynasty, with dying monarch Elizabeth a pivotal character in Emmerich’s drama. But it is the actors gracing the stage who are truly astonishing.
Rhys Ifans plays De Vere (his younger counterpart played by up-and-coming British actor Jamie Campbell Bower) and lover of Queen Elizabeth, who is played by Vanessa Redgrave and Joely Richardson. Shakespeare himself is played by Rafe Spall, son of Timothy Spall. And antagonists William and Robert Cecil are played by David Thewlis and Edward Hogg, respectively. Each delivers a realistic and very raw performance.
The film is composed of two intertwining plots – the first being that Shakespeare was an illiterate actor who couldn’t write. Yet, he was launched into superstardom through a series of fortunate occurrences that allowed him to take credit for De Vere’s plays. As imagined, this incites jealousy, violence and drunkenness.
The second plot line revolves around the matter of succession for the English throne – for Elizabeth has no husband, and more importantly, no heir. Famously never married, The Virgin Queen defies her advisors until her last breath.
The movie opens in the 21st century with actor Derek Jacobi performing the prologue before subsequently being thrown more than four centuries back in time. The story itself is illustrated through a series of well-placed flashbacks and flash-forwards, which illuminate the lives of the older and younger characters. These flashing scenes set a rapid pace for the film, which thus feels shorter than its two hours and ten minutes.
Anonymous is a movie grounded in politics; with that said, there is a certain amount of name-remembering that needs to happen, and a lot of it is thrown at you all at once. While the film would be enjoyable for just about anyone, those who have knowledge of Elizabethan Britain will be more able to keep up.
Emmerich portrays a very seedy and greedy Shakespeare, yet the plays are immortalized through this character and reign supreme. One thing is clear; the pen is still mightier than the sword.
For more, check out:
The Underground: http://www.the-underground.ca/author/leigh-cavanaugh/
The Messenger: http://theutscmessenger.com/?tag=writer-leigh-cavanaugh
Photo courtesy//anonymous-movie.com/
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