Poor Wm.
That’s Wm. short for William, Shakespeare, again under attack by some who say he could not have written the plays that have been under his name for 500 years or so. “Anonymous,” which opens here today, is the latest in a long line that has offered Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson and many others as the “real” authors.
This year’s sacrificial offering, courtesy of screenplay writer John Orloff and director Roland Emmerich, is Edward de Vere, the Duke of Oxford.
Shakespeare is not the only person to receive short shrift (yes, I know, short shrift is better than no shrift at all) in this tale. Queen Elizabeth I (excellent performances by Joely Richardson as the young ruler, Vanessa Redgrave, her real-life mother, as the elder one) is portrayed as a round-heeled party girl, escaping London scrutiny by spending much time at her rural castles where she delivered several children who grew up to be earls or dukes.
By the way, despite its badly flawed history, “Anonymous” is an excellent film, filled with fine performances, sumptuous production values, and a fast-moving story line of sex and sin in high places. Merrie Olde has rarely been merrier.
One of the movie’s difficulties is the fact that De Vere died in 1604, and a number of Shakespeare’s plays were not written until after that year. Another is that the Shakespeare character, played excellently by Rafe Spall, is made out to be a low-class crum-bum and we know better about history’s greatest playwright.
The idea of having the oh, so talented mother-daughter team as Queen Elizabeth is
a brilliant touch, and in terms of De Vere, actor Jamie Campbell Bower grows up to become Rhys Ifans, who is so good he’s makes the skin crawl. Sebastian Armesto is a fine Jonson. Edward Hogg stands out as Sir Robert Cecil, one of Elizabeth’s advisers, courtiers and probable lovers, and Davis Thewlis adds class as Sir William Cecil, Robert’s father and, adding to the intrigue, the father-in-law of De Vere.
Many are taken aback by what may be considered an unnecessary and gratuitous attack on Shakespeare, but if you look at all the characters as the ingredients in a wonderful Elizabethan stew, it’s a fine story.
Anonymous opens today at several theaters.
—Joe