The public outcry, a nation in grief, was whipped up into a media frenzy in the week following Princess Diana’s death which forms the backdrop of Stephen Frear’s excellent, understated ‘The Queen,’ anchored by Helen Mirren’s moving portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II who was unable to correctly gauge the mood of her subjects after this tragedy.
Of all the people one could think of to base a major film around, Queen Elizabeth II doesn’t spring to mind very quickly. The old-world stuffiness and icy reserve she tends to portray doesn’t seem to lend itself to fascinating drama. Surrounding herself with corgi’s and a seemingly forced smile, sympathy is the last thing people would expect to feel upon viewing a section of her life but, yet, here it is.
I became sympathetic to ‘The Queen’ for one reason and that reason was Helen Mirren – like Judi Dench, she has become her own acting institution and this role was her most challenging yet. Mirren must play a woman who talks in dignified hushed whispers and who only allows herself stoic, dignified expressions and she somehow turned Elizabeth II into someone of a surprisingly crackling intensity with a dry sense of humor and wit along with a barely-there sadness that might represent the changing of the world around her.
Stephen Frears, one of Britain’s most consistently talented and varied filmmakers, was the perfect choice to helm this picture. No stranger to the clash and changing of the class structure in the UK with films like ‘My Beautiful Laundrette,’ ‘Prick Up Your Ears’ and ‘Dirty Pretty Things,’ he also generates a quiet intensity and an acerbic humor as seen in his ‘The Hit’ and ‘The Grifters.’ Frears had the benefit of working with screenwriter Peter Morgan (The Last King of Scotland) in their former TV film ‘The Deal’ which dealt with Tony Blair and Labor Party Rival Gordon Brown where Michael Sheen carries on his role of Tony Blair to ‘The Queen’ which could work as a quasi-sequel to ‘The Deal.’
The film starts us off with Tony Blair (Sheen) arriving at the Buckingham Palace the morning after winning his election. It was a landslide victory for the baby-faced PM who promised to the British people to modernize GB and its aging traditions – a possible stirring of politics after Thatcherism. We look in from the viewpoint of both parties, the queen getting some details on Blair from her advisor where her biggest chagrin comes from his insistence on being called Tony (“as in Tony…oh, I don’t like that”). Blair, with his more left-wing wife, Cherie (Helen McCrory) who finds the monarchy unnecessary, is seen nervous and jittery and is given some rules upon meeting her – some royal protocol. The Queen is quick to establish dominance … “you are my 10th Prime Minister, Mr. Blair. My first was Winston Churchill.”
The film delves quickly into the aftermath of August 31, 1997. With an expert use of newsreel and media footage, Frears is able to unveil the death of the Princess of Wales with a sense of currentness. Speaking even as an American fresh out of High School around that date, I still remember the sadness that surrounded that event along with the media circus.
The monarchy reacted with a frosty indifference for the most part with the exception of Prince Charles and the cocoon developed around his sons. The concern was for Diana’s sons, of course, but there seemed to be no grief about the incident from The Queen, The Queens mother (Sylvia Syms) or Prince Philip (James Cromwell) with Prince Philip having a particular disdain.
Blair, however, was quick to pick up on the overwhelming grief of the country and capitalize on it with a speech pegging Diana as “the people’s princess”. Turning the media frenzy into something he can take advantage of, Blair quickly realizes that the monarchy’s perceived frigidity on her death could prove disastrous in their relationship with the public and pushes the Queen to take a more sorrowing approach.
The public, with their voice coming from the media, insists on a public funeral for Diana, whom The Queen first wishes to make a private matter. They also clamor for the royal standard flag (denoting when the Queen is ‘in residence’ at Buckingham Palace) to be replaced with the Union Flag flying at half-mast and are appalled when the Royal Family decides to remain secluded at Balmoral Castle in Scotland – a favorite summer Royal residence.
The Queen greatly underestimates the nation’s mood regarding Diana, assuming maybe that her subjects would share her same viewpoint and her disapproval of Diana’s post-Charles lifestyle. Sheltered away in her castle, she doesn’t seem to understand public opinion nor finds it in her best interest to respond to it. She resists making a public statement but at the urging of Blair and her own inner-conflicts, she eventually concedes to do what might be best for the people.
As this drama plays out, we also have a slight love story playing out in the subtext. It was clear that Blair had fallen under the dignified spell of Elizabeth II, which added urgency to his pleas for her to sate the public. Blair’s wife Cherie had remarked to him that Elizabeth II would have been close to age as Blair’s own mother so maybe there was a surrogate-mother empathy he was playing off of.
This role was the second Elizabeth for Dame Helen Mirren to portray in less than a year. She amazed as ‘Elizabeth I’ for which she won an Emmy and a Golden Globe followed by her Best Actress Oscar-winning role for this film. More than a few similarities between the two films if one looks at the quote which opens ‘The Queen’ from Shakespeare’s ‘Henry IV, Part II’: “Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.” Even though the films are rather different, they are both about Queens having to come to terms with putting the needs of their people above all else.
At its heart, the film is a glorified TV movie. The lensing by Affonso Beato (‘Dark Water,’ ‘Ghost World’) is unpretentious, contained, and reverent to the subject matter. Besides the odd sweeping shot of the Scottish acres, the movie seems much more at home on the small screen where the blandness of the frame doesn’t stifle. Alexandre Desplat’s Oscar-nominated score also excels in its unobtrusiveness. It’s mostly a one-woman show, a character study of a less than thrilling woman who had to look outside her sheltered life and personal grudges to come to terms with the media-driven freak-show that now drives popular mentality. A great, quiet scene in the film has the Queen staring eye to eye with a 14-point buck on the Scottish grounds – a majestic creature whose head is sought after, maybe the Queen shares something with this animal?
The film is presented in 1.85:1 widescreen and is enhanced for widescreen televisions. Special Features consist of a full-length audio commentary by Director Stephen Frears and Writer Peter Morgan, both consistently engaging and articulate with a second commentary by British Film Historian and Royal Expert Robert Lacey, Author of “Majesty” who details the events surrounding Princess Diana’s death along with providing some intriguing facts for people not as familiar with British traditions. Also included is a nineteen-minute ‘The Making of The Queen’ which includes the usual filler.
If all this sounds rather humorless, there is a bit of humor to be found with some of the supporting characters like James Cromwell’s spiteful Duke of Edinburgh who seems more than content to do nothing but hunt and spout disparaging remarks and the Queen mother played by Sylvia Syms who doesn’t take the news of her funeral being stolen standing down (the humor is in the context). But the film is a mostly serious affair, effective on almost every non-ambitious level with Mirren easily carrying ‘The Queen’ on her seemingly frail shoulders.
The Queen is now available at Amazon and AmazonUK . Visit the DVD database for more information.
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