Film
All Is True
- Director
- Kenneth Branagh
- Certificate
- 12A
- Running Time
- 101 mins
It’s not being billed as Upstart Crow: The Movie, but Ken Branagh‘s Bard drama is also written by Ben Elton. All the Shakespeare gang are on board, with Branagh himself playing Bill beneath an elaborate wig. Judi Dench is cast as his missus Anne Hathaway, and Ian McKellen pops up as the Earl of Southampton.
Taking its title from an alternative name for Shakespeare’s play Henry VIII, All Is True was filmed in a publicity vacuum and given a limited release in the US to qualify for the Oscars. Alas, reviewers were not kind, with Variety dismissing the film as “an ill-advised Kenneth Branagh indulgence” and a “revisionist fiasco”. It’s a heavily fictionalised account of Shakespeare’s declining years after the Globe Theatre burnt down in 1613, during which he returned to Stratford to spend more time with his family. Go here for our review.
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