Never Never Lie About History!

Rating: 5/10 (9 February 2008)

Elizabeth the Golden Age gets off to a bad start with a Clinton-like lie (in the first 3 minutes) about Elizabeth guaranteeing religious freedom to the Catholics in England --- kind of like Michael Vick saying he's kind to dogs -- it's like starting a fine dinner and finding a cockroach in the salad. There is NO REASON to distort history in a movie.
Beyond that, Universal has taken one of the most interesting situations in English history and filmed it with mundane boredom. Except for Cate Blanchett in the title role all the players are dull and lifeless. Add to the mix the strange (LSD induced?) dream scenes and we get a film which offers the audience precious little.
Imagine this story being filmed by the high talent giants at Warner Brothers or 20th Century-Fox 40 to 50 years ago. The story would engage the audience with fire, and likely be a classic. Oops! Oh, right! They DID film it back then -- more than once -- and each was a classic.