All Is True

It's almost like Shakespeare wrote this movie.

The movie's impressive appearance notwithstanding, Shakespeare's domestic problems do not a classic make.

Apart from fleeting pleasures, All Is True is mostly a goodie bag stuffed for Shakespeare completists.

But mostly what "All is True" does is give viewers is a fresh look at Shakespeare, behind the guise, flaws and all. And if ever there was a man for that job, it's Branagh.

"All is True" is expertly acted and handsomely filmed but suffers from an excess of sentimentality, a rash of revelations, and a surfeit of subtext, with characters blurting out the hidden motives for their behavior instead of simply behaving them.

A fake schnoz significantly alters Branagh's appearance as the Bard of Avon, but his career-long interest in Shakespeare shines through.

All is True pushes the boundaries of truth but at all times the film is true to itself, and that’s all one can ask in a world filled with so many truths to uncover.

One of the greatest virtues of this film is the intensity that drives the editing of the picture from the very beginning. [Full review in Spanish]

Though much of the film is mere speculation on what the last years of Shakespeare's life may have been like, it is in those extraordinary high points in the film that "All Is True" really does ring true.

A sumptuous film about grappling with joy and sorrow.