Amazing little piece of art

Rating: 8/10 (13 July 2008)

Well, I have to say that I'm a huge fan of Queen Elizabeth I, but I don't know so much about history to be able to point the flaws or the rights of the synchronism between movie and real facts.
But after watching and reading some reviews about the movie, seems that Shekhar Kapur flaws with The Golden Age (2007) the same way as he did with Elizabeth (1998). I mean... Shekhar is naturally excessively sensible and poetic with his movies, so all his devotion and all the historical figure that Elizabeth means for him is a lot iconic. So that's the way he portraits Elizabeth in both movies, as some kind of sacred woman guided by God's hands and not just and only a queen. He's not wrong because he, as a director, have all the rights to express all his artistic visions thru his work, but at the same time he exceeded it somehow affecting the final results and all the huge potentials of both movies in its historical meaning. So, both movies turned from historical movies to genre movies with all its romance and divinity icons humanized by Elizabeth.
No words, technically it's an amazing movie. All historical rescues for the art direction are perfect and incredibly detailed by Guy Dyas who is responsible to transform The Golden Age from a low budget movie into a visually blockbuster one. Shekhar Kapur is also an amazing director who usually feed people with amazing and large shots over the huge and mesmerizing locations. As anyone here said before, sometimes we miss seeing more of the Elizabethan age in England than it's shown in the limited sets but all the production was so under limits that all that is shown is respectful.
About the cast, Cate Blanchett is an actress that any comment is dismissed because she's always perfect and only her persona is the necessary to uplift any kind of movie. Shekhar said that The Golden Age would never be produced without Cate, and we can notice why. The strong and tenderness figure that Cate gives to Elizabeth is something that only her could be able to do. But talk about Blanchett's performance is not being fair with all the cast. Samantha Morthon as Mary Stuart is terrific. The moments which Mary Stuart appears are few and short but Samantha Morthon is a so amazing actress that her dazzling presence during the scenes are just a plus for the excellent choice for casting her. I think that all that Samantha represents as an excellent actress can be seen when Mary Stuart is under house arrest, the scene is superb and the camera could capt every single expression on her face, which are splendid.
As I said before, Shekar is a so poetic director that every scene, every camera movement and every effect has a purpose, so, it's a lot recommended for those who watch this movie also check the DVD for the bonus for a better understanding of all the concept of the movie and its director. Maybe The Golden Age cannot be a great historical movie and suffer with some flaws but all the direction, acting and amazing art direction naturally covers everything that seems to fail. And all of that is more than one reason to watch this amazing little piece of art.