What does this film and Yankee Doodle Dandy have in common?

Rating: 8/10 (28 February 2017)

They are both great films that take so much liberty with the truth that I doubt the real people upon which they are based would recognize their own lives! We'll never know about Queen Elizabeth I who died 400 years before the motion picture was born, but George M. Cohen, whose life is on display in Yankee Doodle Dandy, did screen the picture before release and his comment was - "Great film, who is it about?". But I digress.
Cate Blanchett is every inch a queen in this film. Elizabeth surely was in danger during her half sister Mary's rule who wasn't called "Bloody Mary" for nothing. Robert Dudley was the love of Elizabeth's life, and she likely didn't marry for good reason, especially if you look at what happened to her cousin Mary Queen of Scots, who lost her throne by becoming vulnerable through affairs and marriages of the heart. Dudley's first wife did die conveniently in 1560, leaving him free to marry Elizabeth if she had so wanted. But tongues wagged about the suspicious manner of Robert's first wife's death, as she died by falling down a flight of stairs. Dudley did remain a loyal friend to Elizabeth throughout the rest of his life, angering the queen when he married a second time in secret after waiting twenty years for Elizabeth. But life must go on right?
But this last paragraph is largely the truth, now for the movie. In this film Robert Dudley is still first in Elizabeth's heart, and he is shown to be a two faced horndog unworthy of that affection. Her biggest threat is shown to be Mary of Guise, French born and Catholic ruler of Scotland who plays this role completely over the top, but is delightful nonetheless. She is taken down in a James Bond style operation by Walsingham, trusted adviser and head of a network of international spies who is not against getting his hands dirty himself. Walsingham was indeed a trusted adviser, although years later than shown, and Geoffrey Rush plays this part to perfection, although the actual Walsingham was not nearly as interesting as the character shown here. In fact Walsingham was only a year older than Elizabeth, and a happily married homebody. I think they gave the part to an actor in middle age so that he looked as experienced as he seemed. The cross dressing Duke of Anjou never came to England and never sought Elizabeth's hand, but it makes for a great theater.
Then there is William Cecil, played by Richard Attenborough, whose heart is in the right place - as in for England and for Elizabeth - but has ideas that constrain England as a second hand power looking to France or Spain for protection. Elizabeth retires him with honors in the film and looks more and more to Walsingham. In fact, Cecil was only 13 years Elizabeth's senior, not a very old man as shown here. Elizabeth never retired him. Only death did that, and then only less than five years before her own.
So enjoy the great acting, the perfect art direction and cinematography, the intrigue and the plots, and a...poisoned dress? But most of all enjoy Cate Blanchett's performance as she portrays Elizabeth as she evolves from a young girl uncertain of what to say before parliament to the point where she practices her speeches haltingly in private, into an iron maiden who shears her hair, wears a wig, and paints herself with lead in an attempt to become a symbol of power, not the woman who has been looked upon as vulnerable to plots both at home and abroad. She gives up all hopes of personal happiness to be secure on her throne to tend to her first love, England, with all of this happening in a very compressed time period compared to what really happened, if it happened at all.