Well-acted and colorfully, vibrantly told

Rating: Null/10 (31 August 1999)

The movie presents her climactic stylization of herself(virtually severing her link with her own human self and becoming pure symbol, embodiment of the state, leader to her people) partly as a visceral reaction to her frustration at her missteps and partly as a shrewd calculation, and it's the relationship between the two that's most fascinating - the film manages to grapple with the complexity of her psychology and her situation quite elegantly and certainly entertainingly. Against that, the details of how events actually unfolded aren't as well presented - the movie consists largely of encounters within palace walls or between twos and threes - there's a constant slew of intelligence and things found out, but it gets to be almost abstract intrigue, with the talk of conspiracy and motivations and suchlike sounding like a bit of a macguffin. The whirl of plotting men renders Elizabeth's actions as isolated high spots and inspired moments of sound judgment rather than necessarily consistent leadership, but it's hard to tell how much that's a deliberate narrative strategy. The film is nevertheless well acted and colorfully, vibrantly told - forged in powerful, bold sympathetic instincts.