Review of The Queen (2006) by Rachel H — 10 Jun 2011

With the release and triumph of The King's Speech, it seems a good many people have forgotten about this film, which I see as a companion piece of sorts, as it is about George VI's daughter, our current queen, and she does end up making a speech at the end. The King's Speech is better, but this one is wonderful as well, thanks in no small part to the brilliant leading and supporting performances and moving script. Of course, the film does deal with a very touchy issue that was very real at the time, and I think it handles the issue beautifully, not picking sides and examining it from both the point of view of the royal family and the people.

The Queen is about Elizabeth II, and the big issues she went through with the reaction of the people over her general calmness about Princess Diana's death. The film also deals with the dueling ideals of Elizabeth, who was brought up traditionally and taught to keep her feelings to herself, and the new Prime Minister, Tony Blair, who's modern ideals oftentimes clashed with those of the royal family's. It is shown that Tony Blair has great respect for the queen, but great respect for the people and he wanted the royal family to show that they do care about the grief of the people. Elizabeth's top priority, of course, was the well-being of her grandchildren that just lost their mother, but the people wanted her to make statements, publicly grieve, and some even wanted to abolish the monarchy altogether.

The film is quite moving, but the only problem I can really see with it was that it was slightly romanticized. I do understand that the people loved Diana and didn't really love the royal family, what with all the big zoom-ins of posterboards saying that "You were too good for them". The whole thing with Charles' relationship with Diana was quite romanticized as well, but it was incredibly romanticized in real life. Also, anyone who has an extensive knowledge of the inner workings of the royal family knows that relations with Diana and the royals were extremely strained, and Diana had quite a strenuous relationship in the press.

I think they filmed the dramatization of the crash really well, and they actually used footage of Diana in the movie, again very well. The cinematography and art direction are not quite as grand as The King's Speech, but they are decent for what they were supposed to do. However, those (along with the romanticism) are only minor bumps. I suppose now would be a good place to talk about the movie's real strong suits. Namely, the fantastic leading performances from Helen Mirren and Michael Sheen as Elizabeth and Tony Blair. Mirren won the Oscar for her performance, and she wholeheartedly deserved it, embodying the quiet dignity of a royal perfectly. I was quite surprised though that Michael Sheen did not get a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his portrayal of one of Britain's most beloved Prime Ministers.

The rest of the supporting performances are really good as well, singling out Sylvia Syms as the Queen Mother (AKA Helena Bonham Carter in The King's Speech) and Alex Jennings as HRH Charles. Helen McCrory was okay as Mrs. Blair, but I didn't really like her character because she seemed a bit of a bitch, and she was very hostile towards the queen. I also liked that the movie did not pick sides, saying that the queen was wrong and Blair was right, or Blair was wrong and the queen was right. The film was very witty as well, especially for those who love dry British humour, like myself. I would recommend The Queen to anyone, but it is a must-see for those who are fascinated with the Royal family. So in short, this has become somewhat underrated and more people should definitely see this because it is fantastic.