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Film Review: The Queen

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By: Alibastard | in: Movies |

The Queen

This smart portrayal of how the royal family and newly elected Prime Minister Tony Blair dealt with the sudden death of ex-princess Diana is worth two viewings at least. Restrained and unabashedly winking its way through the months proceeding and following Diana’s demise, the film catalogues, in intimate portraiture, what was really going on when Blair won by a landslide, and flowers piled up outside the unopened Buckingham palace in praise of “the people’s princess.”

The Queen

As the royal family waits, at Queen Elizabeth’s command, to deal with ‘this highly personal situation’, hunting stag in their glorious country house and talking convivially over the perfunctory news responses of everyone from Clinton to Nelson Mandela, Blair endeavors to capitalize on the misplaced idolatry in order to win further success with the British people.
 And so unravels a restrained war between the Modernist Blair and the quick wit, royal cabbage Queen Liz as the crown is symbolically usurped by “a modern perspective”, and the monarchy slapped in the face with a white glove, its entire cabinet somewhat miffed.
The film feels almost like a dry sitcom at points, like the British version of “That’s My Bush.” And this is hilarious. But other moments still glow with an intimate polish that builds sympathy for anyone with the unfortunately monumental stature of international celebrity. And what Elizabeth finally succumbs to, is that the true democratic quality of the populous, even in a monarchy, is controlled most by this modern force of “widespread knowableness” : C-E-L-E-B-R-I-T-Y.

The Queen

A problem second only to that age old question of authenticity to foreign language (best maintained by Clint Eastwood with Letters to Iwo Jima, and effectively thrown out the window with something like Munich) is the decision of biopic filmmakers to either respect the physiognomy of their character’s real life counterparts, or cast the film based on an actor’s ability to embody what the character is supposed to represent most effectively in the context of this one story. Biopic casting that supports the fictitious attributes of real people as characters in a film rather than just nodding to jaw dropping look-alikes create a necessary remove. This helps the audience get pulled into the story instead of saying, “Hot damn that Jamie Foxx looks like him!”
What director Stephen Frears is not ashamed to admit is the possible gap between the dramatic portrayals in this film and the all too true Reality (whatever that is). Generally, this lets the filmmakers play instead of jitterbugging grumpy-faced inside the uncomfortable constraints of Real Life. The decision of Frears and The Last King of Scotland writer Peter Morgan to take liberties imbues the work with a tremendous freedom, gleefully acknowledging its inability to be an unquestioned Historical account in favor of becoming an intimate, somewhat obstinate, work of art. 


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Posted on February 2, 2007

Comments

3 Responses to “Film Review: The Queen”

  1. David Airey on February 2nd, 2007 4:16 am

    I look forward to watching this later tonight.

    Thanks for the great review!!

    David


  2. zee on February 2nd, 2007 8:14 am

    sounds interesting, should worth a watch.
    kudos to ur nice entry, with in depth review!


  3. links for 2007-02-04 at Baron VC on February 3rd, 2007 5:30 pm

    [...] Film Review: The Queen Mistook the screenshot for the real Queen Elizabeth for a moment. A film revolving around Princess Diana’s passing away. The only British films we hear about usually start with 3 digits. (tags: queen elizabeth) [...]


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