Marginally Better Than "The Golden Age"

Rating: 6/10 (24 August 2010)

I've watched the two "Elizabeth" movies out of order, having seen the sequel "The Golden Age" a couple of years ago, and only now the original "Elizabeth." "The Golden Age" came across to me as too romanticized. This one was definitely (if only marginally) better. Beginning with the Roman Catholic Queen Mary (Elizabeth's half-sister) on the throne, and the Protestant Princess Elizabeth being a rallying point for English Protestants, the movie offers a very good portrayal of the religious fervour of the age, as we see Protestants being burned at the stake almost from the opening scene, and it accurately notes that Elizabeth was in many ways a moderate in the debate: Protestant, but not too Protestant; quite willing to let Catholics (and also Protestant non-conformists) alone as long as they attended Church of England services as well as their own. There was a lot of intrigue portrayed as Elizabeth comes to power after Mary's death and as she begins to consolidate her hold on power, which was at first quite shaky and uncertain. There was also a lot of attention to a pre-eminent diplomatic issue of the day: who should Elizabeth marry? There were candidates from both France and Spain (and England for that matter.) The issue of her marriage did lead to one of the funniest scenes in the movie, when Elizabeth walks in unexpectedly on one of her suitors (the French Duc d'Anjou) and discovers him - shall we say - dressed as a woman in the company of men at what appeared to be a rather raunchy party. All that was well done.
The same weaknesses that held back "The Golden Age" in my view are still here, though. The flow was missing; the movie seemed to jump around too much, and the relationship between Elizabeth and Robert Dudley depicted more of the unsubstantiated gossip about how intimate their relationship was, when, in fact, many suspect that stories of their intimacy were quite exaggerated.
Still, this is not a bad movie. It's a great period piece; authentically 16th century in look and feel, and Cate Blanchett is fantastic as Elizabeth - her appearance at the end of the movie is the spitting image of the typical Elizabethan portraits.