OK, before you go on reading, I must remind you that when given anything Shakespearean I tend to be biased.
Rhys Ifans
Jamie Campbell Bower
Since he was a child, Edward De Vere, the Earl of Oxford, (Rhys Ifans, in his mature life /Jamie Campbell Bower, as a young man ) was a literary genius, he was extraordinarily talented with words. However, his rank and the family he was brought up in after his parents' death, the powerful puritan Cecils, prevented him from accomplishing his ambition, that is, to see his plays staged publicly with his name. He , who had meanwhile become Queen Elizabeth's (played in her different ages by Joely Richardson and her mother Vanessa Redgrave) lover, had to renounce all of his dreams and was forced to marry Anne Cecil (Helen Baxendale).
Joely Richardson as Young Queen Elizabeth
Vanessa Redgrave - Elizabeth in her last years
Later on he offered the authorship of his plays to young Ben Jonson who was beaten in the task by an unscrupled, vain, almost illitterate actor in his company, Will Shakespeare (Rafe Spall). In the last year of Elizabeth's reign, theatre and politics mingled and plotted and burst into violence with a tragic sad epilogue.Rafe Spall as Will Shakespeare
Controversies apart, the film is well constructed as a play within a play (it starts on a stage in contemporary New York with a monolog of Derek Jakobi) and has excellent cast and photography. I liked it, though I can hardly be convinced Shakespeare was a fraud and even less can I believe that Shakespeare was the shallow, funny charlatan skillfully played by Rafe Spall. Neither as a dummy writer.Anecdotes:1. The film was released yesterday , November 18, in Italy. I had to leave by bus early in the afternoon to get to Rome in time for the 5.40 p.m. show and I was back home late at night. Was it worth it? Yes, it was.2. The reason why I went to Rome is that I wanted to see it in English. And...wow! I could do it! I could see this film in the original language thanks to Cinema Nuovo Olimpia in the city center and to my friend K/V who discovered it!3. I was actually rather distracted all through the movie by the impression of having already seen somewhere two of the actors without being able to recollect where and when. I now know, thanks to Imdb: ephebic but not effeminate young earl of Oxford (Jamie Campbell Bower) I had already seen as Arthur in Camelot (2011) and fascinating Robert Deveraux, Earl of Essex, I had the pleasure of recently watch in the last series of Spooks (2011) as young Harry Pierce. In both roles, Sam Reid.
Official SiteImdb Video GalleryOxfordian Theory of Shakespeare's Plays10 Reasons Why Shakespeare is a Fraud (video by Roland Emmerich)