Unlikely to follow the mystifying Oscar triumph of “Shakespeare in Love,’’ Roland Emmerich’s “Anonymous’’ insists that no, William Shakespeare was not a cute young writer inspired to write “Romeo and Juliet’’ by a cross-dressing Gwyneth Paltrow.
In this telling, Shakespeare is a buffoonish, illiterate actor who lends his name to plays written by Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford. The latter cannot accept credit for some of the greatest works in the English language because of convoluted political and family reasons.
Despite the presence of such noted Shakespearean actors as Derek Jacobi (who appears in a modern-day prologue) and Mark Rylance (former director of the modern Globe Theatre) as an actor at the old Globe, “Anonymous’’ is really no more convincing than “Shakespeare in Love.’’
Surprisingly, this isn’t primarily the fault of director Emmerich, the disaster-movie specialist who gave us such blockbusters as “Independence Day’’ and “2012.’’ Like those films, “Anonymous’’ is a thoroughly entertaining load of eye candy with solid performances, even if John Orloff’s exposition-heavy script practically requires a concordance to follow at times.
The action toggles confusingly back and forth between several time periods. Mostly it takes place in the years before the 54-year-old Earl of Oxford’s execution for sedition in 1604, when he is splendidly played by veteran character actor Rhys Ifans. (Jamie Campbell Bower plays Oxford as a young man.)
Oxford has been secretly writing plays for decades, despite a promise to cool it extracted by William Cecil (David Thewlis), the overbearing nobleman who raised him and later became his father-in-law.
But Oxford digs out his work when he learns that William and his son Robert Cecil (Edward Hogg) — top advisers to Queen Elizabeth I (a wonderful Vanessa Redgrave) — have become involved in the intrigues surrounding a successor to the aging monarch, who has no acknowledged children.
Our hero goes looking for a front, but playwrights Ben Jonson and Christopher Marlowe — two leading suspects as the Bard through the centuries — don’t want to risk their own reputations.
So the clownish and uneducated Shakespeare (Rafe Spall, son of Timothy) steps forward and takes credit for Oxford’s popular plays, much to Oxford’s horror.
This arouses the suspicions of the hunchbacked Robert Cecil, who rightly takes “Richard III’’ as a satiric commentary on his own lust for the throne.
This plotting, involving one of the queen’s numerous lovers, the Earl of Essex, is not easy to follow — particularly when the film keeps cutting back to Oxford’s youth, when we see his dalliance with the young Elizabeth (played by Redgrave’s real-life daughter, Joely Richardson).
Where “Anonymous’’ has it all over “Shakespeare in Love’’ is its detailed evocation of London from four centuries ago. The rowdy audience for Shakespeare’s first works at the Globe Theatre is especially colorful.
Toward the end, Orloff’s script stops to wonder what might happen if Elizabeth absentmindedly slept with one — or more — of the many illegitimate children she supposedly gave away as a randy young queen.
Before heading off to the gallows, Oxford conveniently provides Shakespeare with a supply of plays to publish after Oxford’s death. Under the circumstances, it’s fair to wonder if he also left behind a treatment for “Chinatown.’’