Anonymous (2011)

The Earl of Oxford (Rhys Ifans as the elder, Jamie Campbell Bower as the younger) has a passion for writing but his puritanical father in law (David Thewlis), who is advisor to Queen Elizabeth I (Vanessa Redgrave as the elder, Joely Richardson as the younger) refuses him in having his plays performed. The Earl then asks playwright Ben Jonson (Sebastian Armesto) to take credit but instead an illiterate, lazy actor by the name of William Shakespeare (Rafe Spall) takes the credit for writing the Earl's plays. Directed by the hack Roland Emmerich (INDEPENDENCE DAY) from a preposterous and offensive script by John Orloff, this is a perfectly dreadful film. There's absolutely no basis in fact for Orloff's assertion (the historical accuracies are multiple) and its portrayal of Shakespeare as an illiterate, blackmailing, womanizing murderer claiming credit for someone else's work is the most ludicrous defamation of character since the portrayal of Mozart as an idiot savant in AMADEUS. Still, audiences ate up AMADEUS and my film companion was swooning over ANONYMOUS so anything's possible though I can't see anyone beyond the conspiracy theorists eating up this garbage. Save for Redgrave, Richardson and Edward Hogg, I can't recall a major film in recent years with such appalling acting. With Derek Jacobi.