Thank God WE Met Lizzie!

Rating: 8/10 (7 September 2010)

To start with, very few actresses could have successfully delivered such a performance as Cate Blanchett's as Elizabeth I and driven it with, at times, such charismatic playfulness and, conversely, such avid passion and cold seriousness. Blanchett makes for an excellent Queen Elizabeth I, with perhaps her most astonishing achievement being her ability to portray the unrelenting and often overwhelming insecurity that inundated the young ruler which, instead of becoming annoyingly dreary, hits the right note and makes the audience sympathetic towards her plight, justifying her nomination for Best Actress, the very first of many Oscar nods.
Balanced against Blanchett is Geoffrey Rush as the mysterious and daring figure Walsingham, a somewhat villain that the audience instantly can get behind as the philosophical anti-hero, eventually arising to the esteemed position of the Queen's personal assassin and adviser. His pivotal role and performance is undermined by a severe lack of presence, though he does a damn good job with what he's given.
Joseph Fiennes is charming and sexily poetic as Elizabeth's illegitimate lover Robert Dudley. Whether portraying the Queen's lover or playwright (as he did in the 1998 Best Picture Shakespeare In Love, also starring Geoffrey Rush oddly enough) Fiennes has a remarkable quality to make every line demand the viewer's attention simply because his words can cause the most rigid person to melt before him.
Christopher Eccleston, a man perhaps best (or most vaguely) described as a subtler John Malkovich, has few true moments of his own, but his restraint and silently calculating demeanour produce a constantly scheming Duke of Norfolk. His many attempts to orchestrate Elizabeth's death for the entirety of the film ultimately result in his execution, due to the betrayal of his servant/lover. Eccleston has created such an airtight antagonist that, even at this, his most pitiable, the audience finds it impossible to pity him.
Kathy Burke's unfortunately small interjection as the eerily desperate Mary I also deserved far more recognition than it received.
Finally, silver-screen veteran Richard Attenborough as Sir William, one of Elizabeth's closest advisers, is gently touching as the under-appreciated voice of reason. In one scene, Elizabeth declares that she will now follow only her own opinion and rebukes William for stating that she is only a woman, saying that she has the heart of a man, she is her father's daughter and she is not afraid of anything. William asks contritely for forgiveness and assures Elizabeth that his advice has always been in her best interests, struggling with tears concurrently with the viewer. It is revitalizing to see that true icons never really lose the power to move their audiences in such a way.
The script's course (which focuses heavily on the brutal conflict between the Catholics and Protestants in England, squabbles that seem ridiculous now but echo the current religious biases in the world to a tee) unfolds with the unraveling of a mass conspiracy against the titled hero, as well as her efforts to do what is necessary in order to reign as Queen: discard her childish naivety and fear of the unknown and become a ruthless, impersonally merciless and dedicated woman. This route is defined and traveled quite comfortably with all the information of a documentary/biography and all the appeal of a splendid drama/epic tale.
The score, composed by David Hirschfelder, is mostly a mixture of string-oriented melodies, fiddle and pipe jigs and church-choir accompaniments. The beauty of many of Hirschfelder's pieces is complemented by Alexandra Byrne's dedicated costumes and Remi Adefarasin's intimate scenery shots as photography director, though there is some clunky and irreverent editing on Jill Bilcock's behalf (witness Cate Blanchett's miraculous movement from the chair to the mirror, in mid-sentence, without taking a breath!)
Director Shekhar Kapur has an apt eye for the continuation of scenes that sometimes are too long but remain of interest because of his considerate touch. If he has committed any true misstep in the making of Elizabeth, it is his constant focus on the affair between Elizabeth and Dudley, which seems adequate enough we realise that it's more fun to watch them quarrel. Still, Kapur has some especially triumphant moments in this film, from the immediately compelling opening, in which three Protestant martyrs are burned alive, to what is a moving, albeit brief, love scene between Elizabeth and Dudley, and of course the powerful 20 second homage to the entire film just before the conclusion.
Elizabeth, while promising, is not a perfect film, which is a genuine shame as period pieces have become such common ground these days that it would be nice to find one that attains such status. It is worth noting that Michael Hirst's semi-faithful screenplay is, if you reduce Elizabeth's script down to its very base, often concerned with tedious yet necessary and, at times, uninteresting plot devices required to keep the film moving. While much of the dialog is crisp and well thought out, there are occasional instances when the film's momentum has slowed and all that is left are two people on screen speaking tired recycled lines, in particular the conversations between Dudley and Alvaro de la Quadra (James Frain), a Spanish ambassador, whom talk of nothing but Dudley's allegiance to England and love for Elizabeth twice for two full minutes when once for 20 seconds would have sufficed. Times like this make Elizabeth, a moderate 110 minutes, seem slightly overlong.
Also, does anyone really follow Dudley's logic for ultimately betraying Elizabeth? Does he?!
However, this is ultimately a sincerely masterful film, particularly its closing scenes, in which Elizabeth decides to take on the façade of the Virgin Queen, inspired by the likewise Mary, by cutting her hair to the length of a boys, adopting a wig, paling her face and sauntering proudly through her royal chambers claiming that she shall never marry or love again, as she is already to and with, respectfully, her great country of England and its people. Powerful stuff.