ANONYMOUS
4 out of 5 stars

this one was interesting... it explored a good “what if”, but just wasn’t as memorable as milos forman’s amadeus. (another movie that explored a “what if” because salieri and mozart were never rivals) yes, edward de vere, the 17th earl of oxford did exist, but he didn’t write shakespeare’s plays. although check out this link, as many think he did: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxfordian_theory_of_Shakespeare_authorship

so, who was edward de vere the 17th earl of oxford? and why do many believe that he was the voice behind shakespeare? well...the movie starts with a theatrical prologue delivered by shakespeare pro/expert derk jacobi (who has probably been in every production in his lifetime), and robert cecil, earl of salisbury, is on a deep search for the remaining shakespeare manuscripts. ben jonson, a medicore playwright at the time, hides in the globe theatre, placing the precious manuscripts inside a locked trunk while cecil’s men start a fire in the theatre to smoke out poor ben... ben is then arrested and questioned by robert cecil, and the movie dives deep into edward de vere’s life AKA his childhood (when he first performed a midsummer night’s dream for the queen), when he lived under the puritan home of the cecils, and when he fell in love with the queen. we also learn that edward de vere (played by rhys ifans as the adult edward; by jamie campbell bower as a teen) had an incredible writing talent, but had to conceal it from his peers due to the fact that members of royal blood aren’t suppose to be playwrights. (leave that to the peasants, man!) so, what is edward to do? edward contacts ben jonson to publish his works under ben’s name, but... the plan backfires when a young actor named william shakespeare steps unto the stage claiming authorship after the audience demands to know who wrote henry V. thus, shakespeare takes the credit and both jonson and edward are motified since shakespeare is just some actor and a complete fame whore! but pretty soon, things get heated esp. when the cecils want james, son of mary, queen of scots to be crowned king after elizabeth’s passing, but that’s threatened by the earl of essex who claims he’s elizabeth’s son... if only they had DNA testing back in those days, right? :P

a VERY interesting story, indeed... and the story isn’t linear, which i liked. however, i felt like it focused too much on edward’s life, rather than showing us why they thought shakespeare wouldn’t have been the true author? anyway, like i said, it’s not as good as amaedus, which explored mozart’s music, his relationships with salieri and his father and wife really well, and i think that has to do with the fact that shakespeare in love really uped the ante on the sole subject of shakespeare. purists AKA real shakespeare enthusiasts would probably hate this... focuses too much on edward de vere; not enough on will. ;)