Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by mr grits (A) on December 02, 2011 at 15:18:30

The large cast of characters and seamless flashbacks nearly require a playbill to keep them all straight. This complex story proposes who the real Will Shakespeare was and how his works came to the public and helped manipulate the "mob's" opinion on the politics of the day. This is truly an art direction and cinematographers tour de force. Filmed in dark tones and mostly natural lighting there a few details missed in recreating Elizabethan England.

This film is an "actors film". It stands on its characters above all. I have never seen Ryhs Ifans so totally drown in his character as his Earl of Oxford. He bleeds it into the camera. Vanessa Redgrave is stunning as the aged Elizabeth with perfect concentration and projection of the Queen on the border of doddering. This would be a nice "send off" Oscar for her. And finally, Edward Hogg lives and breathes his Robert Cecil as chief advisor to the aging Queen. His focus is remarkable with the dark brooding, calculating, and betraying ways of a cripple used as a model for Richard III.

It is easy to envision this as an Oscar Walk movie. There is so much perfection on screen it seems to demand a second viewing to make things perfectly crystal to the viewer.

Worth a walk in.