Anonymous (2011) - Roland Emmerich
I really liked it.
Now, I don't believe The Oxfordian Theory at all, and still don't after seeing the movie. But this isn't a documentary, it doesn't explore the possibilities of Shakespeare versus the Earl of Oxford having written the plays. I mean, the entire movie is based on the idea that The Oxfordian Theory is true. I know a lot of people disliked the movie since the Oxfordian theory is widely excepted by literary scholars to be complete bullshit, and sort of hate the movie by default. But personally I thought it was a great "what if?" story.
Rhys Ifans was fantastic and definitely stole the show, he pretty much made the movie for me. I think it could have been very easy for him to over act his way through this entire thing, but he's surprisingly subtle. Also, this is definitely one of the most beautiful films I've seen in a while. The sets and the cinematography were both amazing to look at.
My one main gripe with the movie comes from the way it presents the idea that the Earl of Oxford was the real writer behind these plays. We're basically told that he wrote Macbeth, Richard III, Henry V etc and are just supposed to except it. We almost never see him actually writing these plays or seeing his writing process
at all. He just whips them off a shelf, already completed, "Yeah, I totally wrote Hamlet. No big deal. Whatever." We're supposed to believe this guy wrote some of the most pivotal and important works in the history of the English language...but are never shown how the fuck he came up with them or where he got his inspiration from. They rarely make any attempts to show the audience that this guy was the literary savant it wants us to think he was beyond the surface level.
One example is when the Earl of Oxford gives his "contact" Ben Johnson his next play to create, and it turns out to be Romeo and Juliet. This is the exchange that follows:
(he hands the manuscript of Romeo and Juliet to the Ben Johnson)
Edward: A romantic tragedy...in iambic pentameter.
Ben: ...all of it? Is that possible?
Edward: (cocky smile) Of course it is.
Yeah, of course it is. Didn't you know I'm a genius?
One other small gripe is the representation of Shakespeare himself and an illiterate drunk. Not that big of an issue, but they were trying a little
too hard to make Shakepeare out to be a fucking idiot.
But again, overall I really enjoyed it - mostly because of Rhys Ifans and the high production values across the board.
4/5
