Glorious visuals and characterisation, nonsense plot

Rating: 4/10 (20 March 2003)

This film gives the look and feel of Elizabethan England wonderfully: the darkness of castles, the pageantry, etc. All this side was great. The costumes are perfect. Cate Blanchett looked the part wonderfully. Much of the characterisation is convincing too. And the end comes to roughly the right conclusion for completely the wrong reasons. Though the casting of Attenborough as Cecil is ludicrous. Cecil would have been late 30s at the time. BUT the plotlines along the way are infuriatingly silly and historically rubbish... Elizabeth knew Dudley was married: she attended the wedding. It was the scandalous death of Amy - widely believed to be for the purpose of marrying the Queen - that ruled out any closer relationship. Elizabeth was never going to risk her crown for love. The only time she and Dudley were anywhere near each other in Mary's reign was when both were imprisoned in the Tower. The Duke of Norfolk was protestant and his plot was to free Mary Queen of Scots twenty odd years later. ETC ETC