Appalling Historic Inaccuracy

Rating: 3/10 (21 February 2009)

This film looks great and the cast is wonderful. Cate Blanchett even looks like Elizabeth I, but if you know even the most rudimentary history of the time, the glaring inaccuracy makes you want to puke.
This is the kind of film that if you try to watch it instead of read the book and then pass a history test, you are going to fail big time.
Skip this and rent the Six part BBC miniseries "Elizabeth R" starring the wonderful Glenda Jackson.
Robin Dudley was an egotistical striver with a lot of political ambition but he would never betray Elizabeth I (well if you leave out taking a governorship without her consent and marrying without her consent, minor squabbles). And don't even get me started about Rush's performance as Walsingham. Oh my God, He was a PURITAN and they portray him as some bright colored clothes wearing bi-sexual bon vivant!! The real Walsingham would barely crack a smile for fear of offending God with his frivolity.
Just stay away from this stinker unless you want some pretty people prancing about with no resemblance to the well documented facts of her reign.