So last night I saw Helen Mirren going on with her bad self as Queen Elizabeth in The Queen. I've always liked Helen Mirren and in this movie, she really did more than an impersonation of QEII, so much that you really felt like you were in her majesty's presence. The movie begins with the landslide victory of Tony Blair and then gunshots immediately to the death of Princess Diana. Now I have to admit, Diana's death was not a really seminal event for me, so it didn't really resonate with me as much as with other folks who perhaps were a little older when Diana married and became the vessel to carry on the Windsor line or when Diana finally left Charles and became the jet-setting charity working divorcee. But the movie really shows the effect her death had on the British people and gives an accurate and more importantly fair portrayal of QEII herself, and you leave with more of an understanding about why her response was so slow and what she was struggling with. She wasn't a cold monster at all, just a product of the life she was born into.
Everyone else in the move is portrayed just as how I would imagine. Prince Phillip is an idiot and I'm sure there's a long line of people, including the Queen herself, who'd like to throw him off a bridge. Charles is like this petrified mama's boy who's terrified to go against his mother. And Tony "Call me Tony, not Prime Minister" Blair was just odd.
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
You Go, Queen
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5 comments:
I love her as well.....as pretentious as it is, she was brilliant in Peter Greenaway's 'The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover'
Oh, and I can't wait to see the final Prime Suspect! I love that series. It's much slower than something American like Law and Order, and it's much darker and introspective
I saw the title of your entry and thought you were talking to me. Go figure.
Helen Mirren rules in this movie (get it "rules" LOL!) Like you, the royal family means bupkes to me, but the conflict between QEII's reaction to Diana's death and the realization that her own actions as queen might bring down the moarchy, an institution she loves and has worked her whole life to honor, gives a wonderful actress like Helen Mirren a meaty inner conflct to play. It's a great role done by a great actress--I think I hear Oscar calling!
Helen Mirren is just great aye.
Kevin in New Zealand
Yeah, I thought the realism seemed right on target too...
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