''Cymbeline'' (also known as ''Anarchy'') is a 2014 American film version of the play ''

Cymbeline ''Cymbeline'' , also known as ''The Tragedie of Cymbeline'' or ''Cymbeline, King of Britain'', is a play by William Shakespeare set in British Iron Age, Ancient Britain () and based on legends that formed part of the Matter of Britain concerni ...

'' by

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

. The film is directed by

Michael Almereyda Michael Almereyda (born April 7, 1960) is an American film director, screenwriter, and film producer. Early work Almereyda studied art history at Harvard but dropped out after three years to pursue filmmaking. He acquired a Hollywood agent on ...

and stars

Ethan Hawke Ethan Green Hawke (born November 6, 1970) is an American actor and film director. He has been nominated for four Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards and a Tony Award. Hawke has directed three feature films, three off-Broadway plays, and a doc ...

Ed Harris Edward Allen Harris (born November 28, 1950) is an American actor and filmmaker. His performances in ''Apollo 13'' (1995), ''The Truman Show'' (1998), ''Pollock'' (2000), and '' The Hours'' (2002) earned him critical acclaim and Academy Award n ...

Dakota Johnson Dakota Mayi Johnson (born October 4, 1989) is an American actress. The daughter of actors Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith, she made her film debut at age ten with a minor role in the dark comedy film ''Crazy in Alabama'' (1999) with her mothe ...

Milla Jovovich Milica Bogdanovna Jovovich; sr-Latn, Milica Bogdanovna Jovović; russian: Милица Богдановна Йовович; uk, Милиця Богданoвна Йовович ( ; born December 17, 1975), known professionally as Milla Jovo ...

and

John Leguizamo John Alberto Leguizamo Peláez (; ; born July 22, 196013:04) is an American actor, comedian, and film producer. He has appeared in over 100 films, produced over 20 films and documentaries, made over 30 television appearances, and has produced ...

Synopsis

Based on the play ''

'' by

, the story revolves around a war between dirty cops and a biker gang. The king of the bikers has lost his sons and needs his daughter to marry royalty to maintain the bloodline. The new Queen wishes to kill the king and her step-daughter in order to install her own son as the new gang leader. The step-daughter has married a penniless gang member, who is banished from the gang territory by the King. The banished son-in-law is tricked into believing that his wife is unfaithful through a photograph taken while she was sleeping. These many intertwined players will travel through desperate straits before all is resolved.

Cast

as Iachimo, who bets that he can seduce Posthumus' chaste Imogen *

, King of the Briton Motorcycle Club *

as Queen, second wife of the King, who wants to cement her power by having Cloten marry Imogen *

as Pisanio, Cymbeline's right hand man, tricked by the Queen into delivering (imagined) poison to Imogen *

Penn Badgley Penn Dayton Badgley (born November 1, 1986) is an American actor and musician. He is known for his roles as Dan Humphrey in The CW teen drama series ''Gossip Girl'' (2007–2012) and as Joe Goldberg in the Netflix thriller series ''You'' (2018� ...

as Posthumus, penniless amour, then secret husband, of Imogen. Plans to kill her after he is deceived by Iachimo. *

as Imogen, daughter of Cymbeline, calls herself Fidel while later traveling disguised as a boy when searching for her banished love *

Anton Yelchin Anton Viktorovich Yelchin ( rus, Антон Викторович Ельчин, p=ɐnˈton ˈvʲiktərəvʲɪtɕ ˈjelʲtɕɪn; March 11, 1989 – June 19, 2016) was an American actor. Born in the Soviet Union to a Russian Jewish family, he emigr ...

as Cloten, son of the Queen *

Peter Gerety Peter Gerety (born May 17, 1940) is an American actor. He is best known as Judge Daniel Phelan in ''The Wire'' (2002–2008). Career Gerety is a veteran of stage, screen and television. In early 1992, he performed to critical acclaim on Broadway ...

as Dr. Cornelius, who undermines the Queen’s plans to kill Cymbeline and Imogen by giving her sleeping pills instead of poison. *

Kevin Corrigan Kevin Corrigan (born ) is an American character actor. He has appeared mostly in independent films and television since the 1990s, including as Uncle Eddie on the sitcom ''Grounded for Life'' (2001–2005). His film appearances include support ...

as The Hangman *

Vondie Curtis-Hall Vondie Curtis-Hall is an American actor, screenwriter, film director, and television director. As an actor, he is known for his role as Dr. Dennis Hancock on the CBS medical drama '' Chicago Hope'' created by David E. Kelley and as Ben Urich in ...

as Caius Lucius, Chief of the Rome Police Department *

James Ransone James Finley Ransone III (born June 2, 1979) is an American actor and musician. He is known for his roles as Ziggy Sobotka in the second season of the drama series ''The Wire'', United States Marine Corps Cpl. Josh Ray Person in the war drama min ...

as Philario, who befriends the banished Posthumus *

Bill Pullman William Pullman (born December 17, 1953) is an American actor. After graduating with a Master of Fine Arts degree in theater, he was an adjunct professor at Montana State University before deciding to pursue acting. He made his film debut in ''R ...

as Sicilius Leonatus, Posthumus' father *

Delroy Lindo Delroy George Lindo (born 18 November 1952) is an English-American actor. He is the recipient of such accolades as a NAACP Image Award, a Satellite Award, and nominations for a Drama Desk Award, a Helen Hayes Award, a Tony Award, two Critics' Cho ...

as Belarius, who kidnapped and lovingly raised Cymbeline‘s two sons,

Guiderius Guiderius (Welsh Gwydr) is a legendary British king according to Geoffrey of Monmouth's ''Historia Regum Britanniae'' (''History of the Kings of Britain'') and related texts. He can probably be identified as deriving from the historical Togodumnus. ...

and

Arvirargus Arvirargus (or Arviragus) was a legendary, and possibly historical, British king of the 1st century AD. A shadowy historical Arviragus is known only from a cryptic reference in a satirical poem by Juvenal, in which a giant turbot presented to the ...

, as his own *

Spencer Treat Clark Spencer Treat Clark (born September 24, 1987) is an American actor. He rose to prominence for his roles in the films '' Gladiator'' (2000) and ''Unbreakable'' (2000). He has since appeared in the films ''Mystic River'' (2003), ''The Last House o ...

as Guiderius, a (unaware) prince

Production

On July 31, 2013, it was announced that

was re-teaming with director

to star in the adaptation of ''Cymbeline''. He would play Iachimo and production was set to start on August 19 in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. Anthony Katagas and

Michael Benaroya Michael Benaroya (born February 23, 1981) is an American film producer. He is chief executive officer at Benaroya Pictures. Biography Benaroya was born to a American Jews, Jewish family on February 23, 1981 in Seattle, Washington, U.S.A. His gran ...

would be the producers of the film. On August 5, it was announced that

had signed to star opposite Hawke. He would play the role of King Cymbeline.

joined the cast in the adaptation of ''Cymbeline'' to play the role of orphan Posthumus who secretly marries the daughter of King Cymbeline and is banished by the monarch who raised Posthumus as a son. On August 8, 2013,

also joined the cast as a female lead; she would play the role of Queen who schemes to move her own son from a previous marriage onto the throne at the expense of the orphan Posthumus and the King’s daughter. Additional cast members added on 12 August included

and

, Yelchin would play Cloten, the son of the Queen by a former husband and Johnson would be playing the role of Imogen, the daughter of King Cymbeline from a previous marriage.

Release

Prior to the world premiere of the film, it was announced

Lionsgate Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation, doing business as Lionsgate, is a Canadian-American entertainment company. It was formed by Frank Giustra on July 10, 1997, domiciled in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and is currently headquartered ...

had acquired all distribution rights to the film. The film had its world premiere at the

Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival he ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

on September 3, 2014. The film then went to screen at the

Busan International Film Festival The Busan International Film Festival (BIFF, previously Pusan International Film Festival, PIFF), held annually in Haeundae-gu, Busan (''also'' Pusan), South Korea, is one of the most significant film festivals in Asia. The first festi ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

on October 3, 2014. For a short time, the film's U.S. title was ''Anarchy'', but it was changed back to ''Cymbeline'', though in some markets it is known as ''Anarchy: Ride or Die'' to avoid confusion with ''

Sons of Anarchy ''Sons of Anarchy'' is an American action crime drama television series created by Kurt Sutter for FX. Originally aired from September 3, 2008 to December 9, 2014, ''Sons of Anarchy'' follows the lives of a close-knit outlaw motorcycle club ope ...

''. The film was released in a

limited release __FORCETOC__ Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few theaters across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unite ...

and through

video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of o ...

on March 13, 2015.

Reception

On review aggregating website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film has a score of 31%, based on 29 reviews, with an average rating of 4.6/10. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which uses a weighted score, the film has a rating of 54 out of 100 based on 15 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

References

External links

* * {{Michael Almereyda 2014 films 2014 independent films 2010s crime films 2010s thriller films American crime films American thriller films American drama films American police detective films Films about drugs Films based on works by William Shakespeare Outlaw biker films American films about revenge Lionsgate films Modern adaptations of works by William Shakespeare American films based on plays Fictional portrayals of the New York City Police Department Films about the New York City Police Department Films set in New York City Films shot in New York City Films directed by Michael Almereyda 2014 drama films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films