Film Review: Anonymous

After what seems like forever, I finally got to see this film, and it was worth the wait! It stars Rhys Ifans, Vanessa Redgrave, and Joley Richardson and is set during the reign of Elizabeth 1 with this premise: what if Shakespeare didn't write all those plays and sonnets he is known for? Though this has been a hotly contested idea for years, somehow this film makes it believable. It begins with playwright Ben Jonson being captured by Secretary Robert Cecil and his men in order for him to hand over all the plays done by Edward de Vere, the Earl of Oxford. Ben insists he doesn't have them, and we are quickly transported to five years earlier where Ben is let out of jail by the Earl (Ifans) who tells him he wants him to take credit for his works...seems that, as an Earl, he is not permitted to take his own credit. Though initially hesitant, Ben agrees, but then lets a loutish actor named, you guessed it, Will Shakespeare pretend he's the one behind the pen while Ben acts as a go between. That however, is only half the story, as we travel back even further to when the boy de Vere puts on a play for the young Queen Elizabeth (Richardson). She loves it, and when they meet years later, they have an affair that has serious after effects. We also learn that Edward becomes a ward of William Cecil after the death of his father, causing an instant rivalry between him and Robert (in one of the era's more bad marriage decisions, he is then married to William's daughter Anne). From there, the story moves along back to where we started, with the older Elizabeth played by Vanessa Redgrave in what I think to be a stroke of brilliant casting dealing with the building rebellion of Robert Deveroux, the Earl of Essex. There is also a twist in there that I found pretty wild. The acting is solid, and the costumes were definitely eye candy. I give Anonymous 4 out of 5 stars.