“To see Anonymous or not to see Anonymous: that is the question“…no.
“Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to speak about Anonymous“…and, no.
“Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by Anonymous“…oh God, no.

Oh bugger.  The course of true critique never did run smooth, and I’m no Shakespeare.  So let me just say, in my own words, that Anonymous is the official starting bell for the Oscar race this year.  It’s a wild and crazy, swords and swagger, love and lust look at how Shakespeare maybe-coulda-possibly come up with all those wonderful plays, sonnets and poems.  And the movie is wonderful itsownself; it’s as dazzling a story as anything Shakespeare could have come up with.  Huzzah!

And writer John Orloff has come up with a doozy of a tale.  Imagine if Shakespeare wasn’t actually the author of all the works attributed to him.  Sure, that’s a theory that has been trotted out before; Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe, the 6th Earl of Derby and the 17th Earl of Oxford have all been tapped as possible “true” authors.  But perhaps that’s not all there is to the rumors.  What if aristocracy wasn’t the only reason someone would wish to keep his writing a secret?  In Anonymous, the 17th Earl of Oxford, Edward de Vere, is posited as the true mind behind the curtain, and the twists and turns of his life, along with the lives of those around him are what drives him to write some of the more well known plays we credit to Shakespeare.  Or to put it another way, in Anonymous the play’s not the thing, it’s the other way ‘round.

So here we have Oxford, a man that has responsibilities to his house and country but longs to write.  Since the theater was one step above body-snatching in the eyes of the upper crust, the poor man couldn’t follow his bliss.  Instead, he enlists the aid of playwright Ben Johnson to bring his squirreled away writings to life on the stage.  But Johnson doesn’t want fame with someone else’s work, and so the credit goes to William Shakespeare, a drunken loutish oaf of an actor.  And voilà — Will’s a star!  Meanwhile, an aging Queen Elizabeth I has yet to name a successor to the throne….

Vanessa Redgrave and daughter Joely Richardson are brilliantly cast as Her Royal Highness, Queen Elizabeth I.  Getting either one of these fabulous actresses on board is good, seeing them take on the same role is simply amazing.  They both bring a bawdy, fun sensibility to the Queen, and give voice to the rumor that perhaps she wasn’t all that virginal after all (and maybe that’s just peachy keen, while we’re on the subject.)  As Shakespeare’s back door man, Rhys Ifans (Pirate Radio, Notting Hill) delivers a performance that is all quiet longing and restraint.  Jamie Campbell Bower (Winter in Wartime, Twilight) plays the young Oxford, a man whose love for writing is eclipsed only by the one woman he can’t have.  He gives a brilliant performance and holds his own completely with this cast of heavy hitters.  Rafe Spall (One Day) is given the unenviable task of making William Shakespeare seem like a cretin, but he manages to turn the legend into a blowhard while still maintaining a bit of high spiritedness that keeps Will fun to watch.

Now, you may want to do a bit of ‘net research before you head to the theater for this.  Don’t.  Part of what makes Anonymous so compelling is the slow unveiling of the story of the Earl of Oxford, and there’s tons of truth and rumor all over the Web.  But if you don’t know already, let director Roland Emmerich take you on a fascinating trip through his version of history.  The twists and turns are even more fun when you’re on the same page as the characters.  Just know this; Emmerich has said that this is his “interpretation about what happened”.  For anything else, do what I did; Google after.

You may not be a believer in this alternate view of Shakespeare’s writings — the man that first came up with the idea is named Looney, after all — but there’s no denying Anonymous is first-class entertainment.