This film has at its heart what conspiracy theorists have been trying in vain to prove for many years; that the individual known as William Shakespeare did not, in fact, write the massive body of work attributed to his pseudonym and that another person received all the credit.

Roland Emmerich, known for the big budget sci-fi Godzilla and Independence Day, may have initially appeared to be a strange choice of director, but his enthusiasm for the subject matter cannot be disputed. I liked his approach of telling the story within another play within the film, which I felt gave it an added layer of depth.

It is slightly odd, however, that he has said he firmly believes Shakespeare did pen these works, as from watching this film I would have genuinely been led to believe the opposite. Despite this, however, he has created a very good looking film. The digitally created Elizabethan London and famous theatres looked (to my untrained eye, anyway) completely authentic. 
 

There were some pretty impressive swordfights too (whoever says they don’t like a good hum-dinger of a swordfight is a liar) to keep the audience amused. And so it was that the visual spectacle of this film, gave me something to look at while I was scratching my head trying to figure out what the hell was going on.

For at least the first half of the film, it appeared to me that two entirely separate stories were being told. Edward DeVere (Rhys Ifans), Earl of Oxford, had amassed a vast collection of his own writings, but it was not proper for a man of his status to be seen writing poetry and plays. However, he still wanted to see his plays being performed on stage to the masses.

Hence, he proposed that writer Ben Johnson be his front, ensuring that he was left with no option but to accept. However, as staging the plays would cause a stir amongst the public and in court, Johnson knew that claiming the opportunity to announce himself as the writer of the plays would damage his own fledgling career.

Therefore, he allowed a little known actor with the ability to read but not write to claim the prestigious title for himself. Meanwhile, we were shown the younger DeVere (Jamie Campbell Bower) reluctantly marrying the daughter of Queen Elizabeth’s advisor, conducting an affair with the queen and getting up to all sorts of other shenanigans.

Fair enough, except the problem was, I didn’t cop that this was a younger version of the playwright himself until near the end of the film. It must be stressed that this wasn‘t due to the level of acting, as each put in a great performance. Maybe this film was meant for a more intelligent audience than I, but in my defence it really didn’t help that DeVere was called different names and titles throughout the film.

In addition, the fact that Ifans and Campbell Bower look nothing like each other only served to add to the confusion. If you want a well-acted film whose politics keeps your mind working throughout, this film comes recommended. 7/10

Christine Brookes