Well-made chronicle of the protestant Queen Elizabeth I ...

Rating: 7/10 (18 December 2007)

1st watched 12/16/2007, 7 out of 10(Dir-Shekhar Kapur): Well-made chronicle of the protestant Queen Elizabeth I and her struggles against Catholic Spain as well as her innermost struggles of being the "virgin" queen. Cate Blanchett once again does a good job of portraying the complexities in this historical character and let's us see what many probably didn't get to see in her day(which of course were her private struggles amplified in this film). The movie is partly about the entrance of Sir Walter Raleigh in her life, played by Clive Owen, who is a swashbuckling handsome type from Spain who comes to get on the Queen's good side and permission for his exploring, but instead tickles her fancy and the Queen would like to have him in other ways. The other part of the story is the conflict between Spain and England and how it got it's start. Sir Walter falls for one of her suitors which causes the queen knipchens and makes her make irrational decisions like denying Walter's exploration and keeping him around as captain of the guard, in hopes that things might happen between them eventually. This is where the story is interesting. The war part, in my opinion, is not done very well and just brings down the movie. Elizabeth is very successful historically in this area, but in the movie she gets help from Sir Walter and her expertise in this area is not expanded or portrayed very well. For the most part, though, this is an entertaining and well executed movie with good acting and interesting conflicts. One suggestion though --- hone up on your history before watching it, as I didn't, and you may understand the movie a little better.