Review: The Queen (2006)

Name: The Queen
Director: Stephen Frears
Year: 2006
Official Site: http://www.thequeenmovie.co.uk

I'm not a Monarchist. I detest the UK Monarchy.

Ok, now I have that out of the way, how about this latest movie The Queen?

The Queen stars Helen Mirren as HRH Queen Elizabeth II and documents the time between the announcement of the death of Diana Princess of Wales and the public funeral held a week later. Shot in a psuedo-documentary style, director Stephen Frears takes the viewer behind the scenes of the events leading from the first news of the car crash in Paris in August 1997, to the public funeral held just over a week later.

Helen Mirren deserves an Oscar for her role as the Queen capturing her voice and her mannerisms almost perfectly. To be honest it seems the casting team have earned their money here as everyone turns in a fantastic performance. Frears however seems to favour Tony Blair in this movie and the underlying message seems to be that Frears thinks Tony Blair carried the royal family through that turbulent week and that he was their saviour from a bloodthirsty public. I tend not to agree with these beliefs and think it's a bit of a shallow move to play when the movie could have been handled a bit differently so as not to make out Tony Blair as some kind of hero when, as I recall from the time it happened in 1997, Tony Blair was not portrayed (at least to the public) as such a heroic figure.

My gripe with the Blair worship ends there as it is effortlessly quashed by superb direction, blending together fiction with authentic archive footage. Frears has done a great job, not just in direction but in keeping the film short and to the point.

One half of me thinks there was no real need for this film to be made. Nobody knows, or will ever know (outside of Clarence House etc) what really went on behind closed doors during that week. The other half of me is pleased that this film was made, in that we get to see the views of that week from a different angle.

The Queen is genuinely a good film. Possibly more geared towards a British audience than a global audience. Watching it today brought back strong memories of where I was at the time I heard the news of Diana's death and the mass hysteria that followed from the press, public and Government in the following days.

Genuinely enthralling if not just for the marvellous performance from Mirren. Go see it.

FINAL SCORE: 8/10

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thanks for the review mystic. i have no idea how this film will do in the states(and yep i live in the states) but reviewers in america do have this on their ocsar contender list. we will see...

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Interesting. Not one that I'd ever have bothered with, but having a vague idea of your tastes Mystic it isn't one that I would've thought you'd watch either.

In truth I'm still not going to make any effort to watch it, I have a couple of hundred movies that I think are more to my liking that I haven't got around to yet...but I'm far less likely to avoid it if I'm flicking and it's on BBC3/4 (as I'm sure it will be in the not too distant future).

Cheers for the review.

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