THE QUEEN

 

While worthy of much of the critical praise it has received, I'm a little mystified as to the level of attention THE QUEEN has received.  The production designer, art director, and make-up artists deserve as much credit for transforming Helen Mirren into such a perfect clone of Queen Elizabeth as the actress herself.  That is not to take away anything from Mirren - she inhabits the character so believably that everything from her live television speech to her gait is pitch perfect - but the film's biggest successes are its more subtle ones.  Michael Sheen is slightly less charismatic than the real Tony Blair in a performance I would characterize as a good impersonation.  My favorite aspect of the film was the use of the archival footage of Diana.  It captures the feeling that Diana's true persona, despite always under a microscope, managed to elude - perhaps transcend - the understanding of those who should have known her best.  Her presence was always felt, a presence more mysterious than necessarily profound.  Indeed, the film does well to avoid specifying whether Diana should have been loved or despised.  The point was what she stood for in the people's minds, and it was that sentiment that the royal family would be forced to finally reconcile itself with.  At the other end of the spectrum, the film's biggest stumble was Mirren's epiphany scene in the wilderness.  It starts out marvelously, subtley, and beautifully.  Her figure alone in the quiet of nature offered a tender moment of profundity.  But the sloppy interjection of an old, dare I say regal, elk into her view felt not only forced but fake as well.  For a film built on real events and subtle performances, the attempt at such an obvious central image was sorely misjudged.  Still, the film offers a fair and introspective study of one of modernity's greatest and even most odd figures.  My desire to go back and study my old books on the English monarchy was immediately peaked.

Comments

[Brett]

I bet it would been better if the elk had turned and looked directly into the Queen's loving longing old eyes and said make me some blueberry pancakes.