My favorite film of 1998!

Rating: 10/10 (9 December 1999)

Cate Blanchett's performance was awe-inspiring and has made me a fan for life. She should have won the Oscar in 1998.
Terrific performances from the other principal actors, excellent costume/art direction and cinematography, a good script (if you can relax any standards of strict historiography you might have, if any) and well-paced direction and editing make for a terrific period piece.
I loved this movie and raved about it for weeks afterward.