All Is True
12/02/19 Filed in: Cinema
Other than having seen the trailer I knew absolutely nothing about this film before we went. So the first surprise was that it follows Shakespeare's life after he wrote his last play, that being after the loss by fire of the famous Globe Theatre in London when a prop cannon misfired. The play on at the time was Henry VIII, with the rather enigmatic alternative title of All IsTrue.
He returns home to his wife, Anne Hathaway of course, and his two daughters, Susanna and Judith. Susanna is married to a puritan and seems to be living quite a miserable life, while Judith is feisty and independent, and constantly at odds with her father. Anne, meanwhile, treats Shakespeare as a guest, given that he has been more or less absent for years. As the guest he's given the 'best bed' in the house, but not with Anne, who has the second best. Anne refers to him as husband. Amazingly we are told that Anne neither reads nor writes, so she is unable to share the works that have made her husband famous.
They had a son, Hamnet, who died young while Shakespeare was in London. Shakespeare's return home is more than anything a penance for having not been there when his son died, and he mourns both the child and what he believed to be a great budding writing talent. It becomes clear that Hamnet meant everything to Shakespeare, with Judith always feeling overlooked. We learn that Judith also neither reads nor writes. The education of women was clearly of little import in those days.
As Shakespeare labours over a memorial garden to Hamnet, tempers become more and more strained between him and Judith, culminating in an exchange of home truths. Shakespeare wants a grandson, and while Susanna has a daughter there seems little hope of her having another child, her husband's puritan beliefs severely limiting their chances. So it is all joy when Judith decides to do what women in those days were expected to do. She marries Tom Quiney, a young man who has been trying to woo her for ages, but who is also a well-known as a ladies' man about town. The marriage duly takes place but Tom's background soon catches up with him.
But all of this is just leading us to a bigger skeleton in the family closet. Shakespeare is particularly sensitive to scandal being the son of a thief, which is something he feels has blighted his position in society despite his great literary success. The final act of the film is quite sad as Shakespeare discovers truths that upend much of what he believed. After this, it seems that his health rapidly deteriorates.
Written by Ben Elton, this is a finely acted story of Shakespeare's later life, with Kenneth Branagh and Judi Dench in the leading roles. Ian McKellen appears briefly as Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, he and Branagh treating us to some fine Shakespearian verse when they meet. And Kathryn Wilder as the stroppy Judith plays the part with great panache.
As Shakespeare labours over a memorial garden to Hamnet, tempers become more and more strained between him and Judith, culminating in an exchange of home truths. Shakespeare wants a grandson, and while Susanna has a daughter there seems little hope of her having another child, her husband's puritan beliefs severely limiting their chances. So it is all joy when Judith decides to do what women in those days were expected to do. She marries Tom Quiney, a young man who has been trying to woo her for ages, but who is also a well-known as a ladies' man about town. The marriage duly takes place but Tom's background soon catches up with him.
But all of this is just leading us to a bigger skeleton in the family closet. Shakespeare is particularly sensitive to scandal being the son of a thief, which is something he feels has blighted his position in society despite his great literary success. The final act of the film is quite sad as Shakespeare discovers truths that upend much of what he believed. After this, it seems that his health rapidly deteriorates.
Written by Ben Elton, this is a finely acted story of Shakespeare's later life, with Kenneth Branagh and Judi Dench in the leading roles. Ian McKellen appears briefly as Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, he and Branagh treating us to some fine Shakespearian verse when they meet. And Kathryn Wilder as the stroppy Judith plays the part with great panache.