All Hail Queen Blanchett!

Rating: 7/10 (21 June 2010)

1998 was the year Hollywood made Elizabethan England sexy. "Elizabeth" was one of two (the other being "Shakespeare in Love") films released that year to feature the famed Virgin Queen in a prominent role, and both actresses to play her (Cate Blanchett here and Judi Dench in "Shakespeare") received Oscar nominations (and in Dench's case the win) for their efforts.
"Elizabeth" is by far the more serious of the two, but take that for whatever it's worth. This "historical" rendering of the young Elizabeth's rise to power is full of enough heavy breathing, whispered intrigues and catty spats to fill hours of reality T.V. The film looks lovely, and director Shekar Kapur keeps things moving briskly (even if I did wish that he'd stop moving his camera around quite so much). This was the movie that made me fall in love with Blanchett, a love that has not abated to this day.
Interestingly, and weirdly, Joseph Fiennes and Geoffrey Rush both appear in this film and "Shakespeare in Love." Between Queen Elizabeth and World War II, what would Hollywood have used for material otherwise that year?
Grade: B+