Anonymous
Columbia Pictures | Release Date: October 28, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
50
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 43 Critic Reviews
Positive:
17
Mixed:
19
Negative:
7
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertOct 26, 2011
Because of the ingenious screenplay by John Orloff, precise direction by Roland Emmerich and the casting of memorable British actors, you can walk into the theater as a blank slate, follow and enjoy the story, and leave convinced - if of nothing else - that Shakespeare was a figure of compelling interest. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzOct 27, 2011
Tremendously entertaining. Read full review
80
Chicago ReaderBen SachsOct 27, 2011
Still, this is irresistible as self-knowing camp: the players ham it up in high fashion and the script crams at least one lurid revelation into every scene. Read full review
80
Boxoffice MagazineAmy NicholsonOct 5, 2011
Why is Emmerich elbowing his way into the conversation about Shakespearean authorship? Because the debate is explosive - and he can't resist packing on a few more pounds of dynamite on his confident drama of incest, greed and beheadings. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterKirk HoneycuttOct 5, 2011
The film grabs at historical facts, mangles them into a plot worthy of a John le Carré spy novel and takes the viewer on a breathtaking ride through ye olde London. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanNov 3, 2011
Anonymous is fun – if you take the anti-Shakespearean tale as events set in an unreal, alternate universe. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliOct 31, 2011
Anonymous is well-paced and never threatens to bore or become too scholarly. Read full review
75
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottOct 28, 2011
Anonymous starts admirably quickly, but Emmerich repeatedly forgets to look over his shoulder to see if his audience is keeping track of which stringy-haired Calvin Klein model is which. Read full review
75
MovielineStephanie ZacharekOct 27, 2011
Ifans takes dorky, grandiose dialogue and turns it into something almost - well, Shakespearean. Read full review
75
Orlando SentinelRoger MooreOct 26, 2011
Even lacking the laughs and romance, he (Emmerich) has delivered an entertaining eye-roller of alternative history. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyOct 27, 2011
William Shakespeare - whoever he was - I think would probably be at least a little amused by Anonymous. For amusing it is - along with bawdy, brazen, politically outrageous, plausible enough and occasionally graced with something close to Shakespearean cleverness in an absurdist sort of way. Read full review
70
VarietyRobert KoehlerOct 5, 2011
The film as a whole isn't quite as interesting, though it is noteworthy that action specialist Emmerich has clearly decided to change course here from anything he's previously made. 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. Read full review
67
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallOct 26, 2011
The most succinct evidence that Shakespeare was a fraud is offered by Derek Jacobi in prologue and epilogue, alone on a Broadway stage before a rapt audience. As usual in matters of the Bard, the play's the thing. Read full review
63
New York PostLou LumenickOct 28, 2011
Where Anonymous has it all over "Shakespeare in Love'' is its detailed evocation of London from four centuries ago. The rowdy audience for Shakespeare's first works at the Globe Theatre is especially colorful. Read full review
63
ObserverRex ReedOct 27, 2011
Historians are already calling Anonymous preposterous humbug, but I found it a complex cornucopia of ideas and panache. You go away sated. Read full review
63
USA TodayClaudia PuigOct 27, 2011
Ifans is convincingly world-weary as the earl who prefers writing sonnets to the pageantry of court life. Anonymous aims to be epic but is closer to stately soap opera. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsOct 27, 2011
Anonymous is ridiculous, and like Oliver Stone's "JFK" it sells its political conspiracy theories by weight and by volume. But dull, it's not. Read full review
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