Anonymous

• Genre: Drama
• Director: Roland Emmerich
• Stars: Rafe Spall, Rhys Ifans, Vanessa Redgrave
• Rate: **

Anonymous is another version of the Shakespearean authorship whodunit, and it’s one of the hoariest.

It’s the conspiracy theory that states Edward de Vere, the powerful 17th-century Earl of Oxford in the court of Queen Elizabeth I, was the real pen behind the works attributed to William Shakespeare.

Director Roland Emmerich and screenwriter John Orloff don’t care if the preposterous premise is true or not.

Their Shakespeare, played by Rafe Spall, is a semi-literate lout, a boozing, whoring, blackmailing thief who has no qualms about perpetuating a fraud as long as enough gold crosses his palm.

Brit rom-com clown Rhys Ifans is the earl, a casting choice that seems miraculous.

Given the rare opportunity of a dramatic lead, he creates a deeply shaded Oxford. He plays against Vanessa Redgrave’s Elizabeth, another casting coup.

They and other fine actors nimbly tread the rotten boards of this story, which also has Elizabeth as a randy minx of a monarch, whose many tumbles included an incestuous union that resulted in a secret son.

Anonymous is so dubious in its intent and so tangled in its execution that it might have worked better as a comedy like Notting Hill or The Boat That Rocked, where Ifans could agreeably play the fool as before.

But Ifans and Redgrave are a lovely surprise. They must have sussed that it’s better to float atop a swamp than drown in it.

Extras include a commentary with Emmerich and Orloff and the featurette Who Is the Real William Shakespeare?