All is True dir. by Kenneth Branagh (review)

Shakespeare has stuck to Kenneth Branagh throughout his theatrical and cinematic career as tenaciously as the prosthetic nose and pointy beard that adorn his face in this 2019 film inspired by the playwright's life. In spite of the apparent promise made by its title, it is, perhaps, unsurprising to discover that all is not true in a film which—like Upstart Crow, its Shakespearean sitcom stablemate, also written by Ben Elton—plays fast and loose with factual history in order to deliver bio-fictional entertainment.

In Upstart Crow, Elton's primary intention was to satirize Shakespeare's struggles to succeed as writer, patriarch, and respected nobleman, and, while much of this is revisited in All is True, the film's purpose and tone are patently more celebratory and reverential. Branagh becoming the Bard might well be regarded as the logical conclusion to his Shakespearean calling. He personally financed All is True, is reunited with his old thespian chum Judi Dench as Anne, and brings into the fold Ian McKellen as Shakespeare's patron and the putative "fair youth" of his sonnets, the Earl of Southampton. It is therefore reasonable to view the film not only as a theatrical love-in of sorts, with these three celebrated actors entwined in a sixteenth-century love triangle, but also as a victory lap suffused by more than a whiff of self-indulgence.

All is Trueopens with Shakespeare returning home to Stratford-upon-Avon on horseback—like a returning conqueror—only to be met with bemusement and derision by his family. He is haunted by visions of a lost boy, visits from old acquaintances, and attempts to repair broken relationships with his wife, Anne, and their two daughters, Susannah and Judith. The film concludes with familial reconciliation and Shakespeare's death on his birthday. Unlike Upstart Crowand other post- Shakespeare in Love(1998) biopics, All is Trueis set at the end of the Shakespeare's life and follows his reflections on life as a writer and, consequently, his absence as a husband and father. The film recalls perhaps most vividly Edward Bond's play Bingo(1973), which also depicted the aging playwright unglamorously, imagined a fractious relationship between Shakespeare and Judith, and featured a conversation with his friend and rival Ben Jonson.

Aside from some conspicuous casting choices, additional distractions can be found in Branagh's not altogether convincing resemblance to the commonly held, portrait-based perception of the playwright's appearance, as well as the retention of his own Received Pronunciation accent, particularly when heard alongside the more authentic Warwickshire burr adopted by other actors in All is True, such as Dench. As a result, Branagh's Shakespeare is always more Branagh than Shakespeare, the actor never disappearing into the character in the way that others do, such as Dean Lennox Kelly in the Doctor Whoepisode "The Shakespeare Code" (2007) and Mathew Baynton in the historical comedy film Bill(2015). Branagh's reputation and background as his generation's most prominent practitioner of cinematic Shakespeare clearly render him more visible in the part than these comparatively less well-known actors. Furthermore, his various facial appendages become an unnecessary barrier to cinematic immersion, a choice that repeats the previous massive mustachioed mistake of Branagh's turn as Hercule Poirot in Murder on the Orient Express(2017), a film on which he also served as actor-director-producer.

Nevertheless, despite these visual intrusions, All is Trueavoids becoming solely a puff piece for both Shakespeare and Branagh due to the film's tonal palate of wry humor and bleak domestic drama. Branagh's dour, naturalistic performance recalls his work in the British adaptation of Wallander(2008–16) rather than most of his Shakespearean...