Review of Queen of the Desert (2015) by Melanie T — 28 Sep 2015

I saw Queen of the Desert's premiere at the Berlinale. It's a huge disappointment, hard to believe Werner Herzog made it. I also can't believe it was submitted for the Golden Bear! What could've been a very interesting portrait of a fascinating historically important woman is actually turned into a cliché ridden incredibly schmaltzy love story with little or no chemistry between Nicole Kidman and her two male leads, a badly miscast James Franco and stiff upper-lipped Damien Lewis.

There is a bit of comedic chemistry between Kidman and Robert Pattinson, who frankly looks ridiculous trying to portray T.E. Lawrence and seems to realise this by playing Lawrence as someone who doesn't take himself or life at all too seriously.

The soundtrack is as cheesy as it gets, like a bad parody of 60's and 70's epic soundtracks complete with Hollywoodised 'ethnic' bits. Maybe the movie will appeal to people who like Downton Abbey, but it's just so dull it's hard to imagine.

Nicole does her best with a very poor script. There's a few funny lines here and there, but it's really a huge disappointment from what could have been a great epic. Exception must be made for the arabic actors involved who act with great dignity in bit parts and Mark Lewis Jones who has an all too brief but entertaining cameo as Bell's Uncle Frank Lascelles.

Overall though this movie is a dud that might be renamed Queen of the Deserted Cinemas if it isn't sent straight to DVD.