Reviewed by Lamar Kukuk
1/4/07
When I first heard the building
buzz about The Queen, I wasn't the least bit interested. Though
Helen Mirren is one of our finest actresses, and I had no doubt that her
performance would be as great as advertised, the notion of a movie about
the Royal Family's reaction to the death of Lady Diana seemed to combine
a whole lot of things in which I have no interest (Diana, the Royal Family,
and British politics in general). But a snappy trailer and some really
glowing reviews got me to go and was I ever proved wrong!
Our story begins in 1997
with Tony Blair (Michael Sheen), the newly elected Prime Minister of Great
Britain, meeting Queen Elizabeth II (Helen Mirren) to be officially “asked”
to take the position. Everything we need to know about their relationship
is made clear in one scene: the Queen's world is one of rigid adherence
to often senseless ritual while Blair, elected as “The Great Modernizer”,
is at a loss for how to behave in her presence. Meanwhile, the Royal
Family has circled the wagons after Diana, the former Princess of Wales,
divorced Prince Charles (Alex Jennings). To them, she's an embarrassment,
a tabloid-friendly troublemaker whose travels and relationships keep getting
tossed in their faces. So, when a tragic accident claims her life,
their reaction is the kind of sad shrug we reserve for the passing of those
we don't particularly care for. Elizabeth even goes so far as to
insist that Charles take a commercial flight to retrieve the body.
Meanwhile, outside the palace walls, comes a worldwide outpouring of grief
they're sure will quickly pass. It does not.
Blair, whose wife (Helen
McCroy) actively campaigns for the dissolution of the Monarchy, is at first
amused by the out-of-touch Royals. He makes a nice speech about Diana's
death, then sits back and waits for the Queen to do her part as a rising
public outcry demands some recognition of the tragedy. Soon, the
Prime Minister begins to fear what had seemed impossible: if the
Queen does not speak publicly, the Royal Family as we know it could be
doomed. But how can he convince Her Majesty to put aside generations
of tradition to do so?
I know this all sounds terribly
dry, but writer Peter Morgan has assembled a compelling collection of facts
about the bizarre relationship between the PM and the Monarch, and skillfully
filled in the gaps in the public record to turn dry personalities we know
from the news into real, breathing and, dare-I-say, exciting characters.
Director Stephen Frears keeps things moving at such a brisk pace that one
never even notices that the movie consists almost entirely of people sitting
in rooms, putting off their tea to have important phone conversations.
There's a real noose tightening around Elizabeth, and Mirren and Sheen
both make you feel it. It's one thing for the Blairs to chuckle about
the end of the Monarchy over dinner: quite another for the Prime
Minster to imagine Britain's most fabled traditions coming crashing down
on his watch. The film really does have the tension and immediacy
of a thriller: a Thriller of Manners, if you will.
Not being a Royal-watcher,
I can't speak to how much of the inside information about the functioning
of the Windsors is public knowledge, but it really fascinated me.
The movie skillfully contrasts the Queen's world of endlessly echoing tradition
with the Blairs living like a normal married couple despite his job.
It's pretty funny to think of someone running for office as “The Great
Modernizer” in this day and age, at least until we see the government edifice
Blair inherited: it's alternately delightfully quaint and shockingly
outdated.
Pivotal to this kind of enterprise,
the performances are top-shelf. Mirren is at her absolute best, seeming
to walk right out of TV footage of the Queen while at the same time bringing
her completely to life. It takes a lot of work to take you inside
the head of a character to whom self-examination is so alien, but even
her silences manage to speak volumes. Believe the hype: this
is as good a performance as you'll see this year. That Sheen keeps
up with her tells you all you need to know. Blair is ultimately a
mysterious figure in the story: just why he felt such a strong need
to save the Monarchy from itself, while much debated, is left for you to
decide, and he plays that ambiguity to perfection. James Cromwell
does what he does better than anyone, nailing a certain kind of hollow
wealthy entitlement as Prince Philip. If you've never seen his William
Randolph Hearst in the HBO movie RKO 281, I highly recommend you
seek it out: it's one of my all-time favorite performances.
The only real misstep is Alex Jennings' peculiarly Saturday Night Live-like
turn as Charles. The character is written is quite interesting, the
only member of the Royal Family who seems to truly fear that gathering
mob, but Jennings lays on the wussiness a little too thick and comes off
as a caricature.
Films like The Queen
re-enforce my faith in the movies: any kind of story can be great
in the right hands. Just imagine how good it must be if you're actually
interested in the subject matter! |
