A tour de force

Rating: 10/10 (16 February 1999)

A brilliant, rich, intelligent film and a tour de force for Cate Blanchett. I was a bit distracted by the constantly-moving cameras at first, though the many aerial shots are quite stylish. Within a few minutes, however, I was so pulled in by the story and the whole set-up that I completely lost track of time, and no longer noticed the swirling cameras. I reckon this is the best film I've seen this year. Two thumbs up.
Oh yes, and having recently seen Ever After, I was struck by the contrast between fairy tale and reality. In a fairy tale the girl gets the guy and the throne and she's happy about it. In reality she trades her youthful freedom and innocence to hold the throne, and loses the guy to fulfill her responsibilities as a just ruler. I suppose that's obvious, but I was still struck by it.