Fictional Fun, Historical Horror
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 of where you come down on the author debate, he did not deserve to be portrayed as a boob. Vanessa Redgrave, who is so talented so it pains me to say this, portrayed the multilingual, politically savvy Elizabeth as no more intelligent than a fourteen year old valley girl (and a slutty one). Cecil comes across as a twisted old man instead of the astute head of a brilliant spy ring and his son amounts to a cretin. The movie plays like a love letter to the Earl of Oxford who, according to this movie, was the only intelligent being among a sea of idiots (which historically can be proven to be complete rubbish). But if you look at this movie as pure fiction, you can relax into a fun costume drama. Pity though, this movie could have been so much better than a forgettable bit of tripe.