All Is True

There are so many mysteries in history, things we'll never know for sure. For instance, everything about Shakespeare is slightly mysterious. This movie focus on his last years and it is based on the very few written documents regarding Shakespeare's family and affairs. This script, based on those few, arid legal documents is pure speculation, but loving speculation from someone who admires Shakespeare a good deal.

We can travel back in time and watch what could have been the final part of Shakespeare's life, back home. Played by Kenneth himself, Will is a slightly disappointed man, who at first does not find much comfort in his family. His wife Anne is resentful, his spinster daughter Judith even more so. Married daughter Susanna is also unhappy, but most of all Will is grieving for the loss of his only son, Hamnet. Allegedly struck down at 11 by the plague over 10 years earlier, Hamnet used to send poems to his father.

Will believes his son to have had a great literary talent and that makes him ever more disconsolate by his premature departure. Judith, being Hamnet's twin sister thinks her father would have preferred her to die and she's obviously hurt. However, there is a secret waiting to be told, which will contribute to give Will the closure he so much needs.

A word about the actors: Branagh is excellent as Shakespeare, definitely not recognizable as himself, but Judi Dench, playing wife Anne is too old for the part. As mentioned by many, Anne was only a few years older than William, but in this movie she could be his mother. Beautifully shot in the English countryside, the movie has an artistic quality to it, an atmospheric melancholic feeling that will be appreciate by many, but definitely not a movie for the masses.

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.

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.

I appreciated this thoughtful film, and Branagh did a marvelous job helming it while also portraying Shakespeare. Another reviewer scoffed at the historical inaccuracy due to the real-life age difference between Branagh and Dench. This chronology was not distracting to me, because both actors gave convincing portrayals. Costumes and set design were outstanding. The gorgeous English countryside stood in as another character, of sorts. During the pre-release screening (USA), the director revealed a fascinating fact: several of the interior scenes were lit by candles, absent of any set lights. I was taken by Branagh's passionate and studied approach to Shakespeare, and this film is a fine example.