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Rhys Ifans stars in "Anonymous."

Updated: March 4, 2012 8:04AM

‘Anonymous’ ★★★½

(2011, Fox; PG-13, 130 min.) A richly detailed historical film that argues Shakespeare was not the author of his own plays. The candidate here is Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford (Rhys Ifans), who is seen deeply involved in the intrigues of Elizabeth’s reign. This theory is nonsense, but don’t allow that to prevent you from enjoying this wonderfully written and produced re-creation of a great epoch in English history. (Roger Ebert)

‘Project Nim’ ★★★½

(2011, Lionsgate; NR, 99 min.) Absorbing documentary about an experiment in which a chimpanzee was raised like a human child, and taught to communicate using sign language. Filmmaker James Marsh adroitly merges real and simulated footage to follow the chimp’s life from happy childhood days through a melancholy series of later homes and captivity. The movie suggests that humans benefitted little from Project Nim, and Nim himself not at all. (Ebert)

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