Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
Set against the backdrop of the succession of Queen Elizabeth I, and the Essex Rebellion against her, the story advances the theory that it was in fact Edward De Vere, Earl of Oxford who penned Shakespeare's plays.
Anonymous is a visually ambitious period thriller that stakes out genuinely distinctive territory by dramatising the Oxfordian authorship conspiracy with melodramatic conviction. Its central conceit — presenting the Earl of Oxford as Shakespeare's true author within a labyrinthine court-intrigue framework — is conceptually bold and gives the film a singular, provocative identity. The cinematography is competent and handsome in a standard prestige-period way but rarely transcends that. The acting is uneven: Rhys Ifans commits fully as De Vere and elevates the material, but supporting performances are inconsistent. The plot grows increasingly convoluted and soap-operatic, straining credibility even within its own fictional logic. The ending, burdened by a revelatory twist that tips into overwrought melodrama, lands with diminishing returns. Overall it is a flawed but memorably eccentric film that earns its distinctiveness.