Maybe I was expecting too much....

Rating: 3/10 (3 February 1999)

Elizabeth I has always been one of my all-time favorite historical characters.
While this film is visually stunning the historical accuracy rates a Less Than Zero.
Cate Blanchett was amazing as Elizabeth -- truly an amazing performance; and the FACES -- the casting director had a field day -- (almost) everyone looked just the way I thought they should look.
The sole exception was Sir Richard Attenborough... He looked terribly out of place for some reason.
One VERY annoying feature of the film was the constant shifting from VERY dark to VERY bright fades. Also the fading not to a soft haze but just BLURRY. The person sitting next to me took off his glasses to see if they were dirty or if it was his eyes.
It was extremely distracting and added nothing.
Also everyone looked just too darn clean. They all had perfect manicures and haircuts.
This was an age when women wore puppy urine as perfume because it smelled better than their unwashed bodies.
Bathing was an annual affair and soap, as we know it, did not exist.
But, in spite of its faults, the overall look was magnificent.