All Is True

Sony Classics' All Is True will mostly command the interest of older art house film connoisseurs, but at least this crowd will respect Kenneth Branagh's directorial effort. His domestic drama is a respectable take on William Shakespeare's final years.

This isn't Branagh's first Shakespeare telling, so it's fair to say he probably knows more than you and me about the man and his work. He's directed five other films based on plays and also acted in each one of them. Little is known about who the English language's greatest dramatist really was. This film is more based on speculations about the final three years of the iconic writer's life.

The Globe Theater burned down, after being in business for 14 years, during a performance of All Is True - the original title of a play believed to have been written by Shakespeare and John Fletcher that a decade later was renamed Henry VIII. Our well known playwright feels defeated by the destruction of his theater and retreats to rejoin his wife and two daughters, who he has barely seen in the last 20 years.

A lot of exposition, with scene after scene devoted to one subject at a time. We see William doing some gardening and thinking about his late son Hamnet, who died at age 11 about a decade earlier. His wife (Judi Dench) thinks his sudden arrival disrupts their peaceful life. And we also get to see the true intentions of some angry, radical Puritans. They accuse William's daughter Susanna (Lydia Wilson) of being unfaithful to her husband John (Hadley Fraser). Then there's Will's unmarried illiterate younger daughter Judith (Kathryn Wilder), who has always believed her father had rather seen her die than her twin brother.

Drama unfolds within the Shakespeare household, with enough resentment throughout the family to keep the story going for another hour. Anne has lived so many years without her husband, that she doesn't really wants him around anymore. His daughters are struggling with what's going on in their lives and also the things that happened in the past run parallel with William's pain in his heart, dying to know the truth about his son's death.

The entire story is pretty straight forward without any sense of complexity. The only problem this film clearly has is the casting of Dame Judi Dench in the role of Anne Hathaway. It's well known that pregnant Hathaway was a few years older than Shakespeare, when they got married. But Dench and Branagh's age difference is a bit of a stretch - she could easily play his mother and she's usually a lot stronger and commanding in her roles, here she lacks any presence. Branagh on the other hand looks like the man himself, sloping nose, moustache, beard and receding hairline. He's not making the story just about himself to show how well an actor he is, but his directorial efforts should definitely be applauded. You can tell he knows the value of a strong supporting cast. Wilson and Wilder both are great in their roles as Shakespeare's daughters, but it's Wilder who is the true scene stealer and I truly want to see her in more period pieces in the near future.

Many of the brighter daylight scenes reminded me of paintings from this time period, changing into different styles with the amount of light that seeps through the cracks of the doors and even when there's barely any light to see anything it's still mesmerising. Everything has an artistic flare that makes All Is True a true visual accomplishment. If only the story was as remarkable, I would still remember it a few days from now.

A stunning slow paced beautifully shot movie. Ignore the bad reviews, take a breathe and enjoy the pace.

This was beautiful in many ways. Lovely photography and music by Patrick Doyle. Well acted of course by Kenneth Branagh and Judy Dench. A very nice screenplay by Ben Elton who is more famous for his comedy writing. He also wrote the wonderful TV series "Upstart Crow" which is a funny view of Shakespeare. This film is much more serious. I don't understand why this film has such a low IMDB rating.

First, its special beauty has as source the status of hommage to William Shakespeare by Kenneth Branagh. If you do not ignore the great adaptations of the plays by Branagh, you understand why "All Is True" is a real special film. Second - for splendid photography . And for magnificent portrait of Anne Hathaway by Dame Judy Dench. And for the moments when the Shakespeare resemblance becomes almost...magic. And the music, off course. And the delicate use of themes.

Sins ? For me , it seems too...didactic. You know the life, you know the plays, you do not forget the verses. And you need a Shakespeare alive, of small gestures, not a package of explanations. I feel the meetings with the Earl of Southampton and Ben Jonson not real inspired used. Cliches, again and again, parts of lessons and something who you know deserves be better.

But, I admitt, I love it. For beauty, with so many faces and sources. And, off course, for "sins". And my old admiration for Kenneth Brannagh is more significant at the end of this film.

A rather melancholy account of Shakespeare's declining years in Stratford, though there are a few more cheerful moments to lighten the gloom. Shakespeare comes home to stay after having been mostly absent in London for the past twenty years, still brooding over the death of his son Hamnet, and is given a moderate welcome by his wife Anne (the ever reliable Judi Dench) and his two daughters. There are some amusing references to the 'second best bed' (which Shakespeare famously left his wife in his will) and a rather unlikely plot about some poetry which may or may not have been written by the long dead Hamnet. Meanwhile his daughters have their own problems. It is all a bit sad and slow, but with some pleasant touches that make it worth watching.