All Is True

A strangely formless and insubstantial love-letter to Shakespeare

There is an vpstart Crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tygers hart wrapt in a Players hyde_, supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blanke verse as the best of you: and being an absolute_ Iohannes fac totum_, is in his owne conceit the onely Shake-scene in a countrey._

• Robert Greene; Greenes Groats-VVorth of witte, bought with a million of Repentance (1592)

"We know very little about the life of William Shakespeare." If you're ever reading something that says this, or any variation thereof, stop reading, and find something by someone who knows what they're talking about. Because the simple fact is that we know a great deal about the...

I must admit, this movie sneaked up on me. It starts out slow, and in fact establishes a fairly low key pace through the film. But there are passionate outbursts and exciting reveals. I almost feel sorry for those impatient viewers who are done in by movies that present complex, finely drawn plots. I can only assume they would also nod off while watching an actual Shakespeare play (as in, "Why don't they speak real English?").

I suppose the details of All is True aren't all completely true, but even the Bard himself took liberty with his source materials, which, let us remember, was often history written by the winners and those whose heads weren't lopped off.

So I think the layered and admittedly slow moving plot rewards the patient ...