Fully Deserves the Honors It Received

Rating: 9/10 (17 September 2007)

Over the past several years, we've enjoyed a veritable avalanche of Elizabeths -- this one with Cate Blanchett, the HBO film with Helen Mirren and a PBS Masterpiece Theatre version with Anne-Marie Duff. While all three are splendid, each in its own way, this one has the strongest cast and Cate Blanchett is a beautiful and imposing Elizabeth. I have no doubt that it reached the widest audience and with such other players as Geoffrey Rush, Joseph Fiennes, John Gielgud and Richard Attenborough, it depended less than did the other two versions on the actress playing the queen. This is one is, by a considerable margin, the shortest of the three. It fully deserved the honors it received. But truth be told, I thought the other two versions superior: the HBO film because Helen Mirren is unequalled (though Cate Blanchett may one day reach her level) and the PBS version because it does the best job of recreating the era and Anne-Marie Duff is quite good, though not as powerful in the role as Mirren and Blanchett.