How did this film get into Oscar contention anyway???

Rating: 5/10 (29 April 1999)

The director of this film didn't know how to tell a story. The average viewer (I'm below average) desperately needed a narrator to fill them in on the English, French, and Spanish history, politics, and religion of those fascinating and turbulent times. What kind of claim did Mary Queen of Scots have to the English throne: blood, politics, or religion??? Too many DARKLY LIGHTED scenes. How did this film get into Oscar contention??? I noted that Joseph Fiennes was a busy boy what with roles in Shakespeare in Love and Elizabeth in roughly the same time period.