'Anonymous'

'Anonymous' (PG-13) (rental)

Written By John Orloff
Director: Roland Emmerich
Starring: Rhys Ifans, Vanessa Redgrave, Rafe Spall, Edward Hogg, Joely Richardson, David Thewlis, Xavier Samuel, Sam Reid, Sebastian Armesto

"Anonymous" is an interesting movie at best and after a frustrating, confusing and lame first hour it settles down. I actually did not like the first hour but in the second hour I strangely got into it. "Anonymous" could have been directed by Oliver Stone for it gives us a conspiracy I can't quite believe. The movie looks beautiful, it may be the first Costume Epic that uses CGI effects. The movie was directed by schlockmeister Roland Emmerich, more on him later. "Anonymous" has two great performances, a great look and some fun soap opera drama in the second half.

"Anonymous" tells us that the iconic writer William Shakespeare actually didn't write all his poems, plays and stories. The movie tells us that it was really Edward Devere, The Earl of Oxford, who at the time of Shakespeare was involved with Queen Elizabeth I and the Essex Rebellion aimed at the Queen. There is some good political intrigue in the movie but there are too many characters to introduce in the beginning and too much boring exposition. At the 1 hour and 10 minute mark the political stuff gets heavily mixed with the fact that many figures were involved in the cover up of who really wrote Shakespeare's work.

I did get more into the movie in the second half, the part that dealt with the Earl and Shakespeare, played well by Rafe Spall. The movie starts to get fun and wipes out the lameness of the beginning. The movie has a goofy charm mixed with some heavy drama dealing with the Queen. Rhys Ifans is good as the Earl but I really loved the performances of Vanessa Redgrave as the Queen and Edward Hogg as Robert Cecil. Hogg is delightfully dramatic and Redgrave is of course awesome, I wouldn't be surprised if she gets nominated for an Oscar.

Those three performances are worth seeing and if you can get through the frustrating beginning you might love the bravado of the end. There is I admit some great drama and some funny lines in the second part. The movie looks great, beautiful to look at so if you love Shakespeare you might really like the movie. I would say wait for cable or DVD especially if you have HD and a big screen television.

I also find it funny that Roland Emmerich who gave us the over rated "Star Wars" rip off "Independence Day" and the silly "2012" made this movie. To me he is a weak director who has never really made a good movie. He makes a lot of schlock like a modern day Dino De Laurentiis. Here he is trying to make a prestigious, Oscar like epic which is very funny to me and that is something that is a huge pet peeve with me but "Anonymous" is his best movie to date.

P.S. For a better movie on Shakespeare check out Academy Award winner for Best Picture "Shakespeare in Love" which rightly beat out "Saving Private Ryan". Also for conspiracy films I abslolutely love "JFK" and can watch it over and over.