All Is True

audience Reviews

, 66% Audience Score
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    Branagh's work earns it an extra star but I found the script unconvincing and found some of the other roles miss-cast.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    The screenplay feels a little too simplistic and predictable but Branagh is able to find enough emotionally compelling moments (i.e. the scene with Ian McKellen) so that the bittersweet ending is earned.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    Not as great as the trailer made it look, disappointing
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    If you love Shakespeare or even just appreciate the great bard, this is an engrossing look at his private home life. A slow rambling start to the movie may put some off, however as it unfolds and we get deeper and deeper into the complexities of his life at home, we get a unique vision of one of our world's greatest English writers. A man for whom life had its own unique challenges and resolutions. Obviously Branagh who has appeared in so many Shakespeare productions has a great love of the bard whose prose connected with so many people who have read his wisdom since his life and death. Not only fascinating, but moving and educational. This story has a lot going for it including Brannagh's masterful rendition of Shakespeare himself. A remarkable achievement.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    Muito bom, apareceu me tentar ser fiel aos fatos apesar de muito deles não ter comprovação por falta de documentação à época, entretanto encontrei pouco a respeito de a irmã gêmea será poetisa ao invés do irmão morto, talvez um pouco de licença poética... Muito me entristece que um homem tão culto, inteligente e talentoso tenha sido levar pelo machismo da época, sua esposa e filhas eram analfabetas, comprovadamente...
  • Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
    Subtle, beautiful shots. Subtle, fine acting. Lovely integration of Shakespeare words into dialogue.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    I thought this was a reasonably good film - there's a good cast and Judi Dench gives a particularly decent performance but I did find Branagh's prosthetics quite distracting - it didn't quite look right, it was a bit overly embellished or some such. Ian McKellen looked more the part as the earl of Southampton, I thought. There are definitely some poignant moments but there are relatively dull moments too. Of course the story of Shakespeare's young son dying and him not being there to witness it, is a sad one - its nothing to trivialise at all, certainly. I believe this film was written by Ben Elton and I could see that it perhaps inspired him to go on to write the BBC TV sitcom 'Upstart Crow' - indeed, Shakespeare is called precisely that during the film. There is some nice scenery, so that's a plus as well but I did think the script could perhaps have been improved, as on ocassion it felt a little slow and without a real structure. I reckon it's worth sticking with, as it becomes most poignant right towards the end but if your not keen on period dramas, or interested in Shakespeare, then its not really worth seeing. Also, I should point out that it is a fictionalised account of what happened during the final years of Shakespeare's life, after the famous Globe theatre was burnt to the ground. The irony of the film being called 'All Is True' has not passed me by(!). It does provide food for thought but I wouldn't say its one of my favourite films of this sort (costume/period dramas), no. If your a fan of Judi Dench, however, I would recommend it and if your interested in a pre-Upstart Crow Shakespeare film written by Ben Elton.
  • Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
    We know so little about the life of the greatest writer of the English language, but that doesn't stop people from speculating and making him into someone who fits their own agenda. Kenneth Branagh has more right than most to do so - he is the era's finest Shakesperean interpreter and evangelist; there are none who do more or who are so good at making the great man's ancient words breathe with contemporary life. With that permission, Branagh's film (written by Ben Elton) takes the acknowledged fact of the death of Shakespeare's young son, and serves up a deft and moving portrayal of a man in the autumn of his life wrestling with grief, regret, and his legacy. Whilst I found the screenplay often too on the nose and episodic, there is much that is of significance here. The nighttime interiors (of which there are many) are beautifully lit, solely by candlelight. The effect of this is startling - Branagh's Shakespeare spends much of the times in the shadows and half-light, barely visible sometimes, even as he delivers impassioned speeches of grief-fuelled anger (or vice versa). This half-light is significant; it reflects what we know about the man himself, as well as being a reflection of what this version of Shakespeare knows about a key event in his own life. This key event is the subject of a significant plot turn, which also deftly mirrors some of the stranger conspiracy theories about the authorship of some of the works attributed to Shakespeare. There's also something significant being said here about how our grief-shaped memories tend toward the hagiography of the deceased, and how this can be unhealthy for those left behind. Branagh's and Dench's performances are, of course, good; especially good is Kathryn WIlder in the key role of Shakespeare's daughter. Fictional speculation this may be, but as befits a film about one. of the world's greatest geniuses, this a film with more going on than its status as a minor film would suggest.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    Interesting and well-done enough as would be expected from a production including Kenneth Branagh and Dame Judi Dench.
  • Rating: 0.5 out of 5 stars
    Pretentious rubbish from the title to the worthless conversation to any lover of Shakespeare a cringing experience without poetry or prose