Anonyme

Si le parcours narratif n'est pas toujours limpide, la reconstitution historique affiche un haut niveau de professionnalisme. Au centre d'une distribution de grande classe et très convaincante, Vanessa Redgrave et sa fille Joely Richardson se partagent avec grâce la couronne d'Elisabeth I à deux époques différentes de sa vie.

Très bon sujet bâclé par un scénario éparpillé et plombé par des dialogues qui rappellent parfois «Virginie» à la cour élisabéthaine? Peut-être bien. Cela dit, malgré toutes ces lacunes, le cinéaste offre aisément un de ses meilleurs efforts en carrière, ce qui ne veut finalement peut-être rien dire.

La question demeure, au terme des 130 minutes de Anonyme. Le film vaut-il le prix du billet de cinéma? Réponse : non.

Précédé d’un prologue narré avec panache par Derek Jacobi, l’ampoulé et tapageur Anonymous confirme que Roland Emmerich est plus à l’aise aux commandes d’un film apocalyptique qu’à la cour d’Élizabeth 1re (Joely Richardson et sa mère Vanessa Redgrave). Beaucoup de bruit pour rien…

But thanks to excellent pacing and editing, the 130-minute running time feels right, and we are never lost amid the frequent shifts from early 1600s to late 1500s and back again.

Mais, bien sûr, on ne peut chasser le naturel, qui a l’habitude de revenir au galop : le réalisateur n’allait pas laisser les faits se mettre en travers d’une bonne histoire. D’où, probablement, le « rebondissement de trop » à la fin. Mais il l’assume. On peut adhérer ou pas. Puis, discuter.

ANONYMOUS would have probably been a failure had Emmerich not cast Ifans in the main role, with this being a rare star-turn for the Welshman, who's mostly know for his supporting parts in films like NOTTING HILL and GREENBERG.

Anonymous aims to be epic but is closer to stately soap opera.

Because the film keeps picking up threads of so many of its characters from childhood, adulthood and later years; because the palace intrigues are so complex; and because, let's face it, this is not Shakespeare, Anonymous occasionally comes apart at the seams. But amusing and diverting it is, and on any given day, amusing and diverting is enough.

Although this is primarily a writer's film, with John Orloff's screenplay (and dialogue) placed front and center, Anonymous surprises with how classical, staid and traditional Emmerich's mise-en-scene is, never straying from tried-and-true costumer standards.

Mediocre actors are often undone by great material, but good ones can burnish even meretricious nonsense with craft and conviction. And so it is here. Ms. Redgrave and Mr. Ifans are so full of feeling, Mr. Thewlis and Mr. Hogg are so full of bile and fanaticism, and Mr. Spall is so full of baloney that you are tempted to suspend disbelief, even if Mr. Emmerich finally makes it impossible.

Master thespians Derek Jacobi and Mark Rylance are called on to sample the Bard's greatest hits and give credence to a movie that is nonsense to the nth degree. As the Bard probably would not say, Anonymous is some crazy shit.

It’s an interesting theory, but one that Emmerich executes with about as much finesse and subtlety as one would expect from the man who rewrote history in 10,000 B.C. If I were him, I would have left my name off of this one.