All Is True

The individual performances in 'All is Lost' should make for a great movie, but instead the film never connects and turns into a slog. What would have the retirement of William Shakespeare been like? Uninspiring. There are scenes that are riveting, but from one to the next that merge together like a head on collision. It's old fashioned, safe, yet solid and totally not necessary. It's an admirable effort by writer and director Kenneth Branagh, but one that could have been not made and nobody would have minded. Final Score: 5.4/10

An attempt to provide a plausible historical fiction to Shakespeare's final years as a loving homage that may not necessarily be terribly compelling or interesting

The acting is great, but this is the most depressing possible movie about Shakespeare -- no matter how much pain he may have been in, I find it hard to believe he spent his last weeks without a trace of the wit or joy found even in 'King Lear'!

Speculation of Shakespeare's last years back home in Stratord-on-Avon has few facts and the rest of the story is speculation. All is true? The performances are first rate (what else?) and really enjoyable.

Best film I've seen in probably five years. Branagh is stunning on screen. It is stylish without falling into slick, gorgeous without getting lost and a deeply satisfying film.

I like the idea: to get a human look at Shakespeare during his final years. I’m not quite sure how well they captured it. The obsession with his lost son was rather overdone I thought. I expected that plot point to wear off, but it consumed the whole film. That’s an awfully small plot point to build everything around. The family troubles and his efforts to recover some sort of relationship with his wife and daughters worked rather better. It is occasionally too feminist in approach: this was the seventeenth century after all and this seemed designed to tug on our heartstrings a bit too blatantly. And there was at least one final revelation more than there needed to be. Shakespeare was actually little known in his day outside of London circles, where he was just one among many playwrights, so a lot of the hero worship is completely ahistorical. I didn’t mind because I thought that was the joke, and I guess it was although they never gave us anything better than a mild chuckle when adoring fans hunt him down. The film’s beautiful to look at, with some lovely Tudor houses serving as the setting of Stratford. Shakespeare actually lived IN the town, about a block away from his old school, so his country manor’s a bit odd. It looks more like his wife’s family farm than his. Branagh looks great as Will. They give him some excellent prosthetics to make him more like a cross between the famous painting and his chubby-faced grave memorial and it really works. I don’t think we’ve ever seen a Shakespeare quite as close to life as this. The performances are all great. It’s a delight to see Judi Dench again, although it cracks me up that she’s so much older than Kenneth Branagh. Anne Hathaway was indeed older than Will, but only by a few years.

Initially I was having doubts over Kenneth Branagh playing Shakespeare, the Bard himself. He proved me wrong as he portrayed a humility, intelligent and poignant man in a drama about family, grief and the tyranny of genius.

Warm colors and interpretations, and a story that, if it is indeed all true, has enough gasoline to propel the movie until the end... and if it's not, we won't care too much anyway.

A bit slow in spots and a bit too tailored to modern politically correct sensibilities, but universal truths still shine through and the slow spots serve to build anticipation.

Beautifully acted, atmospherically filmed with a great soundtrack. One of the most beautiful and moving films I have ever seen.