All Is True

I really love Kenneth Branagh's aesthetic as a director and his passion as a performer and I love anything relating to William Shakespeare so it should come as no surprise that I have been looking forward to All Is True.  This film, which I had the chance to see yesterday afternoon, is an elegiac look at what Shakespeare's final days might have been like.  After the Globe Theatre burns down, Shakespeare (Branagh) is unable to write and decides to return to Stratford-Upon-Avon to the family he has neglected for years.  His wife Anne (Judi Dench) is distant after hearing rumors of his infidelity for years, his daughter Susanna (Lydia Wilson) is married to a man who only cares about what she will receive in his will, and his daughter Judith (Kathryn Wilder) is bitter over his excessive grief over the death of her twin Hamnet.  He attempts, rather unsuccessfully, to create a garden while ruminating on his legacy with visits from the Earl of Southampton (Ian McKellen), purported to be the subject of many of Shakespeare's sonnets, and Ben Jonson (Gerard Horan), a rival playwright.  It is the story of a man facing his mortality with regrets and it is incredibly moving but the plot unfolds very slowly.  However, the images on the screen are unbelievably beautiful so I never found my mind wandering.  I loved the production design, especially the outdoor locations and the Tudor manor houses used throughout.  It goes without saying that both Branagh and Dench give absolutely brilliant performances but I was also really impressed with Wilder, particularly in a scene between Shakespeare, Anne, and Judith where they finally give vent to all of their seething recriminations.  It is pretty powerful!  Finally, nerd that I am, I loved all of the references to Shakespeare's works such as Titus Andronicus, The Tempest, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Sonnet 29 (just hearing Branagh and McKellen recite this sonnet to each other is worth the price of admission in my opinion).  I am sure most people will think this film is utterly boring but, since I have studied and taught Shakespeare's works for most of my life, I loved it!

Note:  I give the same lecture on Shakespeare's life to my sophomores every year before we start reading A Midsummer Night's Dream.  The students are always amused with Shakespeare's bequest of his second best bed to his wife.  This movie has a lovely explanation for it.