One thing I was able to do this past weekend was go see a movie in an actual movie theater! That hasn’t happened in a long time (frankly, I can’t even remember the last movie I saw in a movie theater).
I had to go online this morning to verify just how factual an account this movie is. And it looks to be very factual in it’s telling of the story behind British monarchy’s response to Princess Diana’s death in 1997. Apparently the screenwriter used several palace sources and intimates as well as those in the Prime Minister’s office to create the portrait of a nation in mourning.
Helen Mirren is excellent as the Queen and basically fit *my* vision of what she is like in private. The movie was well balanced in that she in one moment would be a frustrating old-world monarch followed by a wholly sympathetic struggling woman. My comments to my mother as we walked out of the theater were “Does she ever have a really good cry? Does her ‘job’ ever overwhelm her to the point that she just stands in the shower and cries because it’s the only place she can have true privacy to show her emotions?” We’ll never know, I guess.
Michael Sheen was excellent as Tony Blair, and not just because he played him in 2003 as well. He looks a lot like him and did a fine job in the role. In fact, most of the actors did a fine job in their role – even if Prince Charles’ actor didn’t look anything like him.
I liked how director Stephen Frears showed real footage during the movie – footage of the flowers outside Buckingham Palace, footage of interviews with Diana, footage of the funeral. It made the movie that much more powerful.
Things I took away from the movie:
1) Prince Philip is a jerk
2) Queen Elizabeth never had a chance to just be Elizabeth.
3) Diana – while loved by the people – must have been truly awful to the royal family (she was another “character” in the movie who was portrayed as being sympathetic (read: great mother) and harsh (read: rude to the Family and its traditions) all at the same time)
4) Those poor boys, her sons, never had a chance to grieve the loss of their mother in that first week
5) The Queen has and knows how to use a cellphone. Could a crackberry be far behind?
Is this an Oscar-worthy movie? I don’t think so. At least, not the MOVIE. But Helen Mirren most certainly does deserve one.
4 curtsies out of five.
Denis would have been a much better Tony Blair.
Ohhh, I SO loved this movie also.
Helen Mirren is divine – I’ve always said I would watch her in anything.
She also plays Inspector Jane Tennison in a BBC Series called “Prime Suspect”, and she is phenomental in taht too.
I think Helen Mirren will be taking home Best Actress at this year’s Oscars.
Thanks for the review. Sounds like a decent movie outing. Hubby loves all things “Royal”, so I imagine that we will be going to check this one out. There hasn’t been much in the theaters that we want to see for a while, so am looking forward to this.