This witty collaboration between Kenneth Branagh and writer Ben Elton imagines William Shakespeare’s final years in Stratford-upon-Avon, focusing in particular on his relationships with his two daughters and deceased son, Hamnet, who died at the age of 11. Branagh casts himself as the beloved “Will” (of course), playing him with a convincingly world-weary edge, while Judi Dench stars as his wife, Anne Hathaway (English literature nerds may enjoy the references to their “second best bed”). I like Branagh’s eye for landscapes too; space is used elegantly, while widescreen canvases glow green and orange.
