Anonymous

"All art is political," says Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford in this stunning movie and nothing could be truer for Anonymous. Emmerich and Orloff have challenged the gods of Elizabeth History, the literary gods and the gods of succession to today's English throne. “Is this true?" And the answer to the question is overwhelmingly "yes." Orloff and Emmerich have changed some of the dates around to make it into a coherent story, but the relationship between the characters is exactly what happened during the Elizabethan era.

The movie is a stunning directorial effort by Emmerich showing that he can do more than just blow up planets. He gets the maximum in performances by the entire cast. They are not actors in a scene but somehow people who emerge out of the 16th Century to grace the screen with their presence.

If the costume director does not get an Academy Award, there is not a god in the Hollywood Heavens. Many Elizabethan movies tend toward the gaudy Seventh Avenue look, but these costumes enhance the reality of the movie. They are elaborate enough to distinguish the noblemen from the commoners, but no so much that it seems like a fashion parade of jewels and sequins. The attention to detail is spectacular: the oarsmen wear the crest of the Earl of Oxford as they row across the Thames.

John Orloff has pulled off one of the most difficult tricks in writing, the flashback. The movie is tightly woven between acts in the present and the acts in the past that resulted in the present dramas. Usually this is interruptive, but with Orloff's clever writing it is a seamless blend between past and present, what did happen and what is happening now.