I saw 'ALL IS TRUE' earlier this week, two weeks after its Australian release. This British offering is Directed by Kenneth Branagh and Written by Ben Elton and stars the famed Actor and Director Branagh as William Shakespeare. The film takes it title from an alternative name for his play 'Henry VIII'. The film was shot without any fanfare and featured as the Opening Night Gala film at the Palm Springs Film Festival in early January this year after its very limited release Stateside over Christmas 2018 and before its release in the UK in early February. It saw a limited re-release in Los Angeles and New York on 10th May, after which a wider US release was planned. The film has so far grossed US$1.5M and has garnered generally favourable Reviews.
It is 1613, and William Shakespeare (Kenneth Branagh) is acknowledged as the greatest writer of the age. But disaster strikes when his renowned Globe Theatre burns to the ground in the opening scene in which we see a silhouette of Shakespeare standing in front of his beloved theatre as it is engulfed in a rage of flame. Devastated, Shakespeare returns to his home at Stratford-upon-Avon where he must face a troubled past and a neglected family, as he vows never to write again.
Haunted by the death of his only son, Hamnet, who died seventeen years previously, he struggles to repair the broken relationship with his wife Anne Hathaway (Judi Dench) and his two daughters Susanna and Judith (Lydia Wilson and Kathryn Wilder respectively). Shakespeare wasn't around when Hamnet died, much to the chagrin of Anne, and she reminds him that he was off penning 'The Merry Wives of Windsor' at the time and too distracted to care about the death of their only son. Now Shakespeare wants to play catch-up with his emotions, and begins to have visions of young Hamnet, who died in his pre-teen years. Although Anne has committed herself to a marriage of disappointments, she frequently reminds her husband that he has been absent from their lives for the last twenty years, and he is more like a guest in their family household than a husband, and a such she will not share her bed with him.
His daughter Judith (Kathryn Wilder) is more outspoken in her dealings with her father, who wishes for nothing more than to see his twenty-seven year old daughter give up the single life and do the very thing that every woman is brought into the world to do - bear children and give him a grandson, or two or three! His other daughter, Susannah (Lydia Wilson), seems content just to have him back in their lives but then becomes distracted, as does the whole Shakespeare clan, with a scandal in their Protestant village pointed squarely at her, and the advances of another man outside of her marriage.
And so while battling the
emotions of the three grown women in his life, Shakespeare decides he would like to cultivate a garden to give him some purpose and as a distraction away from writing. He toils away turning the soil, planting seedlings, cultivating his meagre crop, pruning, replanting and keeping the neighbours pesky yet friendly dog at bay, all the while overseen by Anne from arms length.
In the meantime, Shakespeare is haunted by visions of Hamnet - putting the young lad up on a pedestal because of his apparent imaginative and witty writing prowess beyond his years. However, this all comes crashing down when in an emotional exchange Judith in fact reveals that she was the author of those poems which Shakespeare has credited his son for over the last seventeen years. All however, is fairly quickly forgotten and forgiven, when Judith announces her plans to marry Tom Quiney (Jack Colgrave Hirst) the local ladies man and all round Jack-the Lad. Its not long after the wedding ceremony that Judith announces her pregnancy, and needless to say the Shakespeare's are overjoyed. 
In a scene of outstanding word play, The Earl of Southampton (Sir Ian McKellen) comes to visit Shakespeare while in the area attending to other business. This is the man to whom Shakespeare allegedly penned his famous Sonnets. Shakespeare seems to hold a burning candle for the Earl, and in a foiled attempt to seduce him later that evening while sat beside a flickering fire, Shakespeare recites Sonnet 29 in its entirety. The Earl rejects Shakespeare's advances, and not to be outshone, the Earl recites the Sonnet straight back at Shakespeare but in a completely different, though no less meaningful and poignant rendition. At which point the Earl takes his leave. 
Later on we see Shakespeare visiting the local church and trawling through the records of those that have died in the parish. He is looking for Hamnet's name and finds it recorded on 11th August 1696 aged eleven. Later that evening at home Shakespeare confronts Anne and Judith about the cause of death. For all these past years Shakespeare had been led to believe that Hamnet died of the plague, but the records of the time seem to indicate otherwise. Eventually, Judith comes clean saying that Hamnet drowned in the pond at the bottom of their garden and was discovered by her and Anne the next morning face down in the water, with pages of his torn up poetry floating beside the lifeless young body. A few days later Shakespeare walks down to the pond late one afternoon and sees a vision of Hamnet sitting on bench by the edge of the pond. Hamnet speaks to his father saying that he is at peace and that he can move on. Shakespeare sits at the same bench as if to embrace Hamnet, and falls asleep. 
The next morning, with a chill in the air Shakespeare wakes from a deep sleep by the edge of the pond. Over the next few days Shakespeare's health declines steadily, during which time his family rally around him. He passes away on his 52nd birthday - on April 23rd 1616.
Kenneth Branagh is no stranger to the works of The Bard himself, having committed over the past four decades or so to film such big screen adaptations as 'Henry V', 'Hamlet', 'Othello', 'Much Ado About Nothing' amongst others. Here he blends fact and fiction and to coin a phrase used in the film by Shakespeare himself, he never let the 'truth get in the way of a good story'. This is an entertaining enough story that is elevated by Branagh, Dench and McKellen, the cinematography and production values are top notch, is is well scripted by Ben Elton and more than aptly realised by the Director and lead Actor, Branagh. Whilst this mildly paced costume drama won't be for everyone, it has enough redeeming features to be worthy of consideration if you're looking for quality filmmaking and an exploration of the great poets perhaps fictionalised final few years. And given that Shakespeare died 403 years ago and he is even more popular today than he was when he lived, what harm can there really be in a little poetic license here?
'All Is True' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a potential five.
-Steve, at Odeon Online-
