Anonymous

Get Showtimes + Tickets

  • Opened October 28, 2011 
  • 2 hr 10 min
  • PG-13 | Some Violence and Sexual Content

  • Parents: Common Sense Media says OK for kids 14+. More on child suitability

  • As royal troops set fire to the Globe Theatre, Elizabethan-era playwright Ben Jonson (Sebastian Armesto) is tortured by Robert Cecil (Edward Hogg), who demands to know if Edward de Vere, the Earl of Oxford (Rhys Ifans) is the true author of the writings attributed to William Shakespeare (Rafe Spall). Flashbacks reveal Oxford's passionate affair with Queen Elizabeth I, and how, in his younger days, Oxford charmed his lover with plays like ''A Midsummer Night's Dream.'' Full synopsis

  • Cast: Rhys Ifans, Vanessa Redgrave, Sebastian Armesto, Rafe Spall, David Thewlis
  • Director: Roland Emmerich
  • Genres: Art House/Foreign, Drama

What's the Buzz?

Go
Fans say Go
286 fans
Read fan reviews
So-so
Critics say So-So
50 out of 100
Read critic reviews
Write your own review

Fan Reviews

Go
Interesting and Entertaining Take on the Shakespeare Authorship Question

by blmcole

I'm not a Shakespeare scholar and so probably enjoyed the movie more than those who could see all the holes in this screenwriter's theory and make arguments. For pure entertainment value, I thought...

Go
Review of Anonymous

by RichardAgemo

Set in 16th century London, Anonymous is visually stunning, and worth seeing for that reason alone. I give it 3 stars. The movie revolves around the tumultuous events taking place at the end of...

So-so
Fictional Fun, Historical Horror

by LondonGirl92

Visual feast for the eyes - lovely job in the graphics department. And Rhys Ifans - great acting. As for everything else: Rafe Spall reduced Shakespeare down to Pauly Shore in costume. Regardless...

Read more fan reviews

Critic Reviews

80
The Hollywood Reporter
| Kirk Honeycutt

The film grabs at historical facts, mangles them into a plot worthy of a John le Carré spy novel and takes the viewer on a breathtaking ride through ye olde London. Read full review

63
USA Today
| Claudia Puig

Ifans is convincingly world-weary as the earl who prefers writing sonnets to the pageantry of court life. Anonymous aims to be epic but is closer to stately soap opera. Read full review

50
NPR
| Bob Mondello

Bottom line: Grant the film's big moments a kind of loopy majesty, and note that they're better acted than they deserve to be, not just by Ifans, Redgrave and Spall, but by David Thewlis and Edward Hogg as the villainous father-son team of William and Robert Cecil. It's a classy cast. Read full review

50
Boston Globe
| Wesley Morris

The moviemaking is proficient, if unremarkable. I like the idea of an Elizabethan action movie apparently more than I enjoy watching one. Read full review

Read more critic reviews

Offers

Photos

Rhys Ifans in "Anonymous."