BEFORE: Well, this chain presents me with something of a quandary - doing a chain based on Judi Dench is a fine idea, except that she was also in that horrible version of "Cats" that came out a year or two ago. It's running on cable, and I've been avoiding recording it, because once I record it, then I'm bound to watch it, and I don't really want to. Plus I'm sort of afraid to do so, I've heard so many bad things about it. I already passed on it once, it could have fit in between the two Rebel Wilson movies I programmed last week. I would like to take a pass on it again, but then I'm not facing my fear, so what's my justification? I suppose I can fall back on the reasoning that I can't possibly fit "Cats" in this week, because adding a movie would throw me off my schedule, and then I won't hit my St. Patrick's Day film on time. So let's go with that. Plus, I'm visiting my parents in Massachusetts right now, I don't have access to my DVR to record it, or HBO Max via my home computer browser. All very good excuses, I mean reasons, to pass on "Cats" again. Someday, maybe, if it gets me out of a tough linking jam.
Judi Dench carries over again from "Tulip Fever". And in Women's History for March 15, it's the birthday of the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg (born in 1933), the second female U.S. Supreme Court Justice, and a champion of equal rights for women. Also born on March 15 were Isabella Anthony (Lady Gregory), co-founder of the Irish Literary Theater and Abbey Theater (1852) and Grace Chisholm Young, English mathematician (1868) and Marjorie Post, owner of General Foods and philanthropist (1887)
THE PLOT: A look at the final days in the life of renowned playwright William Shakespeare.
AFTER: Today is also the Ides of March, the famous day where Julius Caesar was umm, removed from office, impeached quite violently by stabbing from multiple Roman senators. And who wrote a very famous play about this incident? William Shakespeare, of course. Here I feel like I should probably read more about the WHY of Julius Caesar's assassination, but honestly, I don't have time here - I've got to focus on Shakespeare, not Caesar.
This film takes a very curious tactic, starting to follow Billy Shakes immediately AFTER the big fire that destroyed the Globe Theater in 1613. During a performance of Shakespeare's play "Henry VIII", a prop cannon misfired and ignited the thatching of the theater, which of course was all made of wood, so it burned to the ground. And old Will never wrote another play, so the movie (I suspect) conflates a few things and suggests that he was so distraught after watching the theater burn down that he gave up on writing and went home to his wife and kids, pretty much for the first time in years. The truth is what's at stake here, because the theater was rebuilt the following year, but it is also true that "Henry VIII" was his last play. ("All Is True" happens to be the working title for that same play, "Henry VIII".)
It's also true that the Bubonic Plague was ravaging the U.K. as late as 1609, so all London theaters were closed quite frequently for extended periods of time between 1603 to 1609 - so even before the fire, it wasn't a great time for public performances. Shakespeare was possibly also disheartened with these frequent closures, perhaps the fire was the final straw, who's to say? And hey, doesn't this situation seem very familiar, a plague closing down all public venues? Sports arenas and movie theaters in the two biggest entertainment markets have been closed for a year, just starting to re-open now - I wonder what the time-frame will be for re-opening Broadway, that's probably the toughest challenge, as Broadway theaters have to be PACKED to turn a profit, and they're all accustomed to squeezing the most people possible into tiny seats that are too close together - and unlike a movie theater, a Broadway theater that's only half full can't financially support a major production.
But back to Billy boy - he moves back home, re-connects with his wife and two adult daughters, and mourns the loss of his son, Hamnet, who died years ago. The rest of the family already made their peace with Hamnet's death, but Shakespeare's been so busy that he never took the time to do so. He decides to build a garden in honor of his departed son, then comes to realize how much work that will entail. He also is shamed into going back to church, as it seems that his father was once kicked out of church for non-attendance.
Plus he's got a few other fires to put out - his older daughter Susanna is accused of adultery, and Will meets with her accuser to threaten him with the story of a large black actor who's devoted to her and would do anything to protect her good name, even kill her accuser. Great, so he uses racism and the threat of violence to protect his daughter's honor, but that doesn't really answer the question over whether she committed adultery in the first place.
Meanwhile, Shakespeare's younger daughter, Judith, who was Hamnet's twin sister, refuses to get married because she's unhappy over the fact that women can't seem to play any role in 17th century society, other than wife and mother. She claims authorship of the poems that Hamnet wrote, saying that she dictated them because she was illiterate. Umm, OK, but if she couldn't read or write, how did she know all those words in the poems? She could rhyme words, but not write them down? I'm not sure this makes sense, exactly.
Then the family gets a visit from the Earl of Southampton, who served as Shakespeare's patron for many years. Will wrote all of his 152 sonnets under his sponsorship, and this raises the question of whether he wrote these love sonnets FOR the Earl, or TO the Earl. The film suggests the latter, which means that Shakespeare went both ways, loved women and men, and this may be shocking to some Shakespeare fans, and confirm the theories/fan-fictions of others. Considering all the controversies about who Shakespeare really was, or if there ever even WAS a William Shakespeare to begin with, and how little evidence the man left behind (outside of those plays and sonnets) perhaps this is a minor point, or who knows, maybe it's a big clue to who this man really was. Or wasn't.
We all know that William Shakespeare's will has that now-famous line about leaving his wife, Anne Hathaway (no, not that one) his "second-best bed". This film takes the time to sort of bend over backwards and explain how this wasn't really an insult to her, giving it some frame of reference and deeper meaning, when for all we know, there really wasn't one.
There's also something of a mystery here, as Shakespeare has a little time to think, does some detective work and determines that perhaps his son Hamnet did NOT die from the plague. OK, so then how DID he die? And is any of THAT little plot point based on actual history, or is everything here just idle speculation? And if so, what is served by speculating in THIS direction about Shakespeare's sexuality, his possible extra-marital relationships, and the exact manner of his son's death? There are so many little threads here, I'm not really seeing how they could possibly come together to form the whole costume.
Also starring Kenneth Branagh (last seen in "Dunkirk"), Ian McKellen (last seen in "The Good Liar"), Lydia Wilson (last seen in "Star Trek Beyond"), Kathryn Wilder, Jimmy Yuill (last seen in "The Raven"), Gerard Horan (last seen in "Murder on the Orient Express"), Harry Lister Smith (ditto), Kate Tydman (ditto), Hadley Fraser (last seen in "The Legend of Tarzan"), Alex Macqueen (last seen in "I Give It a Year"), Nonso Anozie (last seen in "RockNRolla"), John Dagleish (last seen in "The Gentlemen"), Jack Colgrave Hirst, Eleanor de Rohan, Clara Duczmal, Phil Dunster (also last seen in "The Good Liar"), Sean Foley, Sam Ellis, Matt Jessup, Michael Rouse (last seen in "1917"), Penny Ryder (last seen in "Victoria & Abdul"), Darryl Clark.
RATING: 3 out of 10 grave markers
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