The Queen (2006)

I've watched The Queen 3 times and I'm not even a fan of "royalty". Helen Mirren's acting is so incredible in this film. Saying everything without a word. Whether you like royalty or not, this film is deeply nuanced with layers of different people's truths. The story line follows Tony Blair's involvement with Queen Elizabeth immediately following Princess Diana's death. Their relationship is very sweet. Two worlds colliding, the past with the now. I could feel the burden Queen Elizabeth carried, as she became queen at a very young age and gave her whole life to service and restraint. Because of this restraint, the public never really knew what goes on behind closed doors. The public never knew the Diana the royal family knew. It is sacrilege to say anything negative about Diana, but she had to go through her growing and healing pains, married off at 18 into a world wholly unprepared and still carrying skeletons of her childhood. The queen and Prince Charles were ill equipped to help her. There is no "good guy" or "bad guy" in this film. Just characters being true to what shaped them. And masterfully shows that change can happen through relationship with one another. Lovely film that I'll likely watch a 4th time.

The film plots the response of the British royal family to the death of Princess Diana in a car accident in 1997. Tension focuses on the idea that, in contrast to the general public, the Royals didn't much care for Diana. In one scene, Prime Minister Blair (Michael Sheen), in tune with the public's mood, talks on the phone with the Queen; they're discussing how the monarchy should respond to Diana's death. After a tense and difficult conversation, Blair concludes by saying: "let's keep in touch". To which the Queen, in an icy voice, responds curtly: "Yes, let's", then hangs up. "The Queen" is a good movie.In the film, the Queen (Helen Mirren) comes across as dignified, disciplined, confident, unemotional but brooding, perceptive, stoic, and fond of protocol and tradition. Blair comes across as informal, perceptive, jovial, and easy to relate to. Differences in their personalities are blatant and obvious.In addition to a delicate script that zips along at a good clip, the film's production design is terrific. Though palace interiors are probably tacky in comparison to what the real British palaces must look like, the film crew does a fine job with the budget they had to work with. Ditto the credible costumes. Cinematography is fine. Casting is ideal.A couple of concerns keep the film from being really great. There's a bit too much screen time spent on the "stag" hunt in the North. And in those scenes, I wouldn't have thought that the Queen actually drives a car herself, or wears a scarf. And second, and more important, you get the feeling that the film was made in direct response to the death of Diana; otherwise, the film would never have been made. If that's true, then it's Diana who is the real story here, and the title is thus a tad disingenuous.Despite my problem with the film's reason for being, "The Queen" is a fascinating drama. Helen Mirren's understated performance is wonderful, and boosts the overall quality tremendously. It's a film well worth watching.

The casting stands out first, just about every character is so like the real person it is like watching a documentary. and what they say is believable too. The queen of course, and the Duke, and Charles, and Blair the new prime minister and his wife. All great.The sad events of the era, the death in very suspicious circumstances of Diana, and then the problems of how the royals react is all here.A thought does occur to me, afterwards, that Blair's ambition to change and improve Great Britain seems to have been lost in the subsequent years. My guess is that Blair will now be regarded as just another...whatever, and who-cares. So much was promised?

I have never been following the royal British family very closely, so I don't really remember how the situation was back then, in relation to the untimely death of Princess Diana. The actual reaction of the individual members of the family is difficult to assess, compared to the real history, but the overall reactions of the royal institution are spot on. This stubborn, old-fashioned, cold & cynical clinging to tradition and protocol that; inhibits the family from reacting like human beings is both outdated and outrageous. And it offends me grossly. The queen, Elizabeth II, is shown as a woman, raised by these beliefs and hence very correct, and seemingly emotionally detached from reality. It is difficult to hold it against her though, when you look at the company she's in: married to Prince Phillip who almost aggressively protects these protocols, and the child of Queen Elizabeth I, a firm believer in the old-ways. The only one in the Queens family that questions these traditions is the Queens oldest son, Prince Charles. Regrettably the relationship shown between mother and son might just as well have been that of strangers. The only one, (with the power to do something about it) that opposes of this system, is the newly elected prime minister, Tony Blair, who throughout the film tries to salvage the situation for the royal family.The story is already well known, so the outcome couldn't be a surprise, but it still pleases me to see how the prime minister and his staff finally gets through to the royal institution, and how the Queen finally chooses to go against tradition, and partake in the public mourning. She redeems herself as a human being, showing a Queen in touch with her subjects, instead of the detached cynical woman showed first.