Okay, if I give anything away in this little review, then you are either younger than 10 years old or were living under a rock during the second half of 1997. This is not a movie that’s going to have surprising twists and turns but, rather, will show you a side of the very stuffy British Royal family that you may not expect.
It starts out with the election of Tony Blair (Michael Sheen, who, according to the Internet Movie Database, has not been in anything that anyone in America would have ever seen)—which does not exactly amuse the Queen (the oh-so-cool Helen Mirren). After all, he’s a modernist and is married to the “known anti-monarchist” Cherie Blair (Helen McCrory, who is the spitting image of the real Cherie Blair). So, that’s all, you know, slightly irritating to the Queen. Then Princess Diana dies and things are turned upside down. The Queen doesn’t respond as the British public feels she should and she doesn’t understand why her people can’t respect her grandsons’ privacy and her husband, Prince Philip (James Cromwell, taking the villain turn), is deliciously hateful.
The bulk of the movie takes place in the week from Diana’s death to her funeral and, as I said, everyone knows the Queen finally make a speech and Elton John—much to the displeasure of Prince Philip—sings at her funeral. No surprise there.
The surprise was the transformation of the character of the Queen in just that week. She does seem like she doesn’t have a clue and that she does not, at all, care. But then her Butler (or personal secretary or something—I’m not sure what he is, except that he listens in on her phone calls) explains to Tony Blair that the Queen is in shock—she watch the monarchy kill her father and recognizes that, this time, it may do in her entire family.
Before I go on, there are a couple things you must understand. The first is that I have a degree in British Medieval History and so I understand the monarchy a bit more than your average American. Secondly, I didn’t really like Princess Diana and always thought that she made sure the Royal Family got quite the bum rap.
Even so, I was surprised at how this movie portrayed the royal family. True, not all of them came off as sensitive human beings. Others, however, were surprisingly human. Frankly, I think that director Stephen Frears put together a surprisingly accurate portrayal of these people and he should be applauded.
The real treat of this movie was Helen Mirren. It seemed to me that she was always in the shadow of Judi Dench, but she clearly stands out on her own. And I can’t believe that this was an easy role to play but Helen Mirren makes it her own. I honestly believe that this is the best performance by an actress this year. However, if history holds, Ms. Mirren will lose out to a blonde American (just ask Judi Dench or Cate Blanchett).
I went to this with the Good Doctor since neither of us was in the mood for something too frivolous or too heavy and The Queen hit the nail on the head. It’s not a difficult movie to watch, but a fascinating one. There are some comedic moments—but unfortunately some of the humor was probably not intended. Instead it was just the American reaction to some rather British (and, to us, confounding) ways.
If I had to find one fault with this movie it would be the casting of Alex Jennings as Prince Charles. It’s not that he’s bad—in fact, I think he does do quite a good job. The problem is that he looks exactly like George W. Bush. Trust me, watching a Bush look-alike speech with a high-falutin’ British accent will definitely weird you out.
In a nutshell: A great movie if you are looking for a lighter “thinking” movie or if you just want to enjoy some dang good acting. Worth a full price ticket!
