Marvelously acted and staged.

Rating: 7/10 (11 February 2012)

Yesterday I wrote a review of Clint Eastwood's J. Edgar, where I talked about how biopics are instantly met with the mountain of having to condense the life of a historical figure into a two hour film. I posited that they should instead focus on an important part of their life and work it as a character study around that, rather than trying to produce a history lesson of their birth to death. It's a strange coincidence that today I was finally struck with the proper motivation to sit down and watch Shekhar Kapur's Elizabeth, because this is the rare biopic that does exactly that.
The film focuses on Queen Elizabeth I of England, but instead of trying to detail her entire life, Michael Hirst's script centers on when Elizabeth first takes the throne and the tribulations that she encountered upon coming into power; tribulations seems far too meager a word though, for what she had to face. Elizabeth was faced with threats from all angles, political, romantic and life-threatening and the film does an excellent job of making you feel as though the walls are closing in on Elizabeth from every side. Slowly everything becomes more intimate and intense, culminating in a rush of drama during the climax where every facet of her life hangs in the balance.
Kapur took a gamble by placing the film on the shoulders of the mostly untested Cate Blanchett, who hadn't even done a handful of film roles at the time, and it's one that pays off miraculously. Blanchett gives us one of our first tastes of the mastery of her skill that we would later come to expect practically once a year, and it might just be her finest performance to date. She fully disappears into this role, allowing us to sink in with her to the paranoia and high drama of this woman's world. This is one of those rare gems of a performance that goes through such an extensive evolution, but does it all in a way so natural and effortless that you don't even notice it unless you're paying attention. When you get to the final scene and you look back at the woman who we began the film with, it is absolutely astonishing the transformation that has occurred, and this is all thanks to Blanchett's seamless portrayal. She takes us on this journey from frightened and unsure young lady into a fierce and strong-willed queen.
The supporting cast all delivers as well, with a great ensemble including Joseph Fiennes, Richard Attenborough and Christopher Eccleston, but the standout for me was Geoffrey Rush. As Elizabeth's closest protector, he gives a subtle yet incredibly commanding performance that meshes moments of intimidation, seduction and the strangest sense of grace at times. It's a marvelous cast in a film that is quite the treat itself. I'll be curious to see what they do with Golden Age, since this one closes with the standard, "...and these are the things that happened until she died...," texts.