Not much is known about the details of the Bard's private life. We know he married Anne Hathaway, they had a daughter Sussanah, and twins, a girl Judith and a boy Hamnet, who died aged 11. Anne was about 8 years older than William and is played here by Judi Dench and her husband by Kenneth Branagh who also directed. Ian McKellen pops up as the Earl of Southampton in a sort of cameo.
This film is beautifully shot, the outside scenes in particular look like a Constable painting and the candle lit interiors like a Rembrandt.
Over all, with it's mostly modern language, I thought it a good idea to do that, to make it more accessible to a modern audience. It possibly makes it too easy to follow and I can imagine the purists being frustrated by that, but you have get seats filled and not lose your audience half way through because they don't understand what is being said. Ben Elton wrote the script and it is very different to his marvellous TV comedy series Upstart Crow, with hardly a titter in sight.
This plays out in Elton's imagination as a mystery thriller almost as no one really knows what happened in Shakespeare's life privately. He could have framed the story in many ways.
I have been looking forward to the film version of Maggie O'Neill's book Hamnet which has been announced, about the difficulty of Anne coming to terms with the death of Hamnet at 11 years old. All Is True adopts the difficulty that William has with it but in more of a guilty conscience sort of way, because he feels he neglected his son by staying away in London for years, writing his plays, acting, building his theatre and making a lot of money.
I enjoyed this modern presentation in this form, although there are occasional forays into the Shakespearean language we are familiar with and the mixing does seem slightly incongruous.
Fine acting all round and Branagh with his make up is quite convincing.
This film is beautifully shot, the outside scenes in particular look like a Constable painting and the candle lit interiors like a Rembrandt.
Over all, with it's mostly modern language, I thought it a good idea to do that, to make it more accessible to a modern audience. It possibly makes it too easy to follow and I can imagine the purists being frustrated by that, but you have get seats filled and not lose your audience half way through because they don't understand what is being said. Ben Elton wrote the script and it is very different to his marvellous TV comedy series Upstart Crow, with hardly a titter in sight.
This plays out in Elton's imagination as a mystery thriller almost as no one really knows what happened in Shakespeare's life privately. He could have framed the story in many ways.
I have been looking forward to the film version of Maggie O'Neill's book Hamnet which has been announced, about the difficulty of Anne coming to terms with the death of Hamnet at 11 years old. All Is True adopts the difficulty that William has with it but in more of a guilty conscience sort of way, because he feels he neglected his son by staying away in London for years, writing his plays, acting, building his theatre and making a lot of money.
I enjoyed this modern presentation in this form, although there are occasional forays into the Shakespearean language we are familiar with and the mixing does seem slightly incongruous.
Fine acting all round and Branagh with his make up is quite convincing.