If the entire film were as acutely rendered as this bracing volley, it would be something to remember. While I eagerly wait for him to breathe life into some dismal Harold Robbins smut, I must settle for his crafty bit of meta-casting in “All Is True.” After taking on several of his plays, Branagh now takes on Shakespeare himself. This is the guy to whom the Bard supposedly wrote those sonnets. About Our Ads Like Branagh, McKellen is no stranger to the Bard nor is he unfamiliar with dousing his performance with figurative pork products. Shakespeare is also reunited with his daughters Susannah (Lydia Wilson) who is married and Judith (Kathryn Wilder), who is not. Meanwhile, Lydia is married to the dull type of Puritan who’s more adept at burning theaters than fanning the flames of sexual passion. Contains mature thematic elements, suggestive material and strong language. Unless you count his take on Frankenstein, Branagh has yet to fully commit to the lovely depths of trashiness that Sir Larry O. plundered. Coming from the pen of Ben Elton, writer of Upstart Crow, an ongoing British TV comedy hit about Shakespeare and the creation of some of his most famous plays, as well as of The Young Ones and numerous episodes of the farcically historical Blackadder, the script for All Is True is exceedingly expository, with scene after scene devoted to one subject at a time: Will just wants to do mindless yard work and commune with his lost son; his illiterate wife Anne (Judi Dench) resents his disruptive arrival after so long, and Will declaims that, “I've lived so long in the imaginary world that I've lost sight of what is real.”. Anne seems to be the only one comfortable with her life and her delusions. As the women in his life become more emboldened to stand in their truth — rather than aid and abet the Shakespeare family mythology — William realizes that he must reckon with his ghosts, including the shame and status-obsession passed down from his own disgraced father. Handsomely produced, every frame carefully composed with appropriately autumnal tones, “All Is True” doesn’t traffic in the antic, anachronistic wit of “Upstart Crow,” Elton’s delightful Shakespeare-centric Brit-com. Branagh doesn’t chew the scenery; he mows it in widescreen compositions that are quite often lush and comforting. The humor here is quieter, interwoven with more contemplative, even elegiac concerns, as William is forced to confront assumptions — about fatherhood, marriage, his own insecurities and ego — that he has spent a lifetime trying to outrun and out-write. Kenneth Branagh plays William Shakespeare contemplating the end of his career in “All Is True,” an intriguing speculative drama about the playwright’s final years. In 1613, Shakespeare is returning to Stratford to rejoin the family he left behind while he pursued fame and, more pointedly, fortune: He finds his wife, Anne (Judi Dench), and daughters Susannah and Judith (Lydia Wilson, Kathryn Wilder) contentedly pursuing life and domestic affairs without him, having long since acclimated themselves to his absence. All rights reserved. A strangely formless and insubstantial love-letter to Shakespeare Directed, produced by, and starring Kenneth Branagh, All Is True is a pleasant enough film obviously born from great reverence, but is also clumsily episodic in structure, and relatively free of conflict, focusing instead on A strangely formless and insubstantial love-letter to Shakespeare Directed, produced by, and starring Kenneth … Anne seems rather exasperated to see him—she’s gotten on quite well with an absentee husband—but she welcomes him back home. Welcome to Judgment City: A Look Back at Defending Your Life, The West Wing Returns for an HBO Max Special, Touring Masterworks: Adam Nayman Discusses His New Book on Paul Thomas Anderson. The verities he thought would comfort him in his dotage turn out to be illusions of his own self-serving concoction. “It’s not Hamlet you mourn,” Anne scolds, using the boy’s nickname. Editor: Una Ni Dhonghaile The director quite rightly focuses on his forceful, sober turn as the greatest literary figure in the history of the English language, but the helmer-star nonetheless doesn't behave as though it's all about him, nor does he crown his character with a wreath of genius. This they direct, at a suspicious simmer, toward the popular playwright in their midst but vituperatively at Will's daughter Susanna Hall (Lydia Wilson), who at length is accused of being unfaithful to her husband John (Hadley Fraser). PG-13. for thematic elements, suggestive material and language. Both actresses have their moments. Odie "Odienator" Henderson has spent over 33 years working in Information Technology. Sir Kenneth Branagh's All is True is a splendid little treat for Shakespeare fans, especially for those who've always wanted to know a little more about the man himself. Anne offers her husband her bed, because “a guest deserves the host’s best bed.” Anne will not occupy it with him; instead she’ll take the “second best bed” in the house. He runs the blogs Big Media Vandalism and Tales of Odienary Madness. Still, they have kids and Judith does not, which puts her at a disadvantage. Sitemap | FACEBOOK Long the writer's patron, the elegant visitor cuts the figure of an intelligent dandy, garbed in fancy attire and a long blond wig that instantly reminds of Peter O'Toole's get-up in The Ruling Class. As the drama stirring in the Shakespeare household begins to take hold, so does the fundamental intelligence of the film's approach settle in. What’s more, they have little interest in revisiting the death of the Shakespeares’ young son Hamnet, whose loss William is only now beginning to process. But the crowning scene of “All Is True” comes midway through the film, when William’s patron and muse, Henry Wriothesley (Ian McKellan), stops by for a visit and a fireside chat. Terms of Use | For her part, Anne has lived so long without her husband that it's an inconvenience to suddenly have him around. Cast: Kenneth Branagh, Judi Dench, Ian McKellen, Kathryn Wilder, Lydia Wilson, Hadley Fraser, Jack Colgrave Hirst, John Dagleish, Sean Foley The pic's highlight, however, is a long fireside chat between Shakespeare and a welcome guest, the Earl of Southampton (Ian McKellen). We do know, however, that in June of 1613, the Globe Theater burned to the ground in London. Meanwhile, Shakespeare’s relationship with Hamnet’s twin, Judith is strained because, you guessed it, the wrong kid died. Adding to the issues is the heavily pronounced age difference between Dench and Branagh; the pregnant Anne Hathaway was 26 when she married the 18-year-old Will Shakespeare, but the unignorable fact is that Dench, at 83, is 26 years older than Branagh. All of this is laid out in a deliberate, presentational manner, with little complexity or subtext. Vowing to never write again, he returns to Stratford-upon-Avon where his wife Anne Hathaway (Judi Dench) has been holding down the fort in his absence. | Cookie Settings. You know the one: “When in disgrace, with fortune and men’s eyes” and so on. Purists may have a field day with “All Is True,” and it does have a tendency to lag, but I found myself thinking about it days after I’d seen it. When the truth comes out about Hamnet’s death and his poetry, Anne digs in her heels about the lie she agreed upon telling. Say what you want about his onscreen vices, but Branagh has always been a charitable director and it really shows here. Director: Kenneth Branagh Producers: Kenneth Branagh, Ted Gagliano, Tamar Thomas Certainly there is more than enough resentment throughout the family to go around, and it lingers for a good while. As an actor and director, Kenneth Branagh has presented several works of Shakespeare for cinematic consumption, bringing flair, passion, humor and a bit of randy action to plays like Much Ado About Nothing and Henry V. And like his Bard-loving predecessor, Sir Laurence Olivier, Branagh has run the gamut from Hamlet to ham. But make no mistake, this is still the same guy who went full-on operatic in the massively entertaining “Dead Again.” Just when it feels like the Bard really doth protest too much about his misery, the film gets a major injection of juicy theatrics courtesy of Sir Ian McKellen. Shakespeare is tormented by the death of his son Hamnet, whom he thought would pick up his writer’s mantle and continue his legacy. Purists may have a field day with “All Is True,” and it does have a tendency to lag, but I found myself thinking about it days after I’d seen it. Directed by Branagh from a sprightly script by Ben Elton, this flight of fancy never succumbs to what-if-ism for its own provocative sake. Aided by more than a little makeup and a history bending script by one-half of the duo who created the immortal “Blackadder,” Branagh’s Bard is an unexpectedly subdued performance. As far as acting battle royales go, this is one for the books. Those themes have to do with the death of a golden child, unresolved guilt and grief, parental self-deception and filial ambivalence — meaning that, in myriad guises and genres, we’ve seen this movie before.

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