The Queen

Reviewed by:
Pete Hammond

Ads for this sensational (in every meaning of the word) and very amusing English film make it look like one of those dreary costume dramas in which everyone sits on their royal ass, waxing rhapsodic on the virtues of life in the kingdom. But it ain't that at all. Instead, The Queen is a smartly observed piece about the aftermath of Princess Diana's death in a 1997 Paris car crash, particularly focusing on the seeming lack of compassion coming from the dysfunctional British monarchs. One of Tony Blair's (brilliantly played by Michael Sheen) newly elected aides says at one point, "Will somebody please save these people from themselves!" But as these "freeloading and emotionally retarded" royals (as someone else puts it) sit in stony silence, a grieving country is virtually calling for their heads, wondering why they don't seem to be displaying any heart for the loss of Prince Charles' former wife and mother of his two sons, including a possible future king of England. Effectively cutting between Blair's efforts to delicately humanize the stoic Queen Elizabeth (Helen Mirren) and her brood and the family's own conflicts in positioning their "grief" over the sudden loss of the canonized "People's Princess," The Queen makes you feel you were there. Expert use of actual news reports and footage from the actual events of the week only adds to the authentic feel of the whole enterprise. Mirren, clearly headed for Oscar glory, has played a few queens in her time but is a dead ringer for this one. Here's a film that takes you behind the most famous closed doors in the world for a wickedly funny, fascinating, and ultimately moving story of our times.