Overblown and Underdeveloped

Rating: 4/10 (19 November 2007)

When it was first announced that Shekhar Kapur was to direct a sequel to his 1998 film Elizabeth, my first reaction was 'Why?' The original was such a solid film  good story, well told, well made and excellently performed  that I saw little point in checking back in after nine years had passed. Then the trailer was released. My hopes were significantly raised; the film looked stunning. If Kapur could manage to balance the deft character drama of Elizabeth with the kind of lush and epic period visuals on display in the trailer, we'd be in for a treat.
Sadly, Kapur manages to achieve only the latter. Despite another brilliant turn from Cate Blanchett, Elizabeth: The Golden Age is a film that keeps its audience at arms' length, a historical political pantomime that all-but defines 'style over substance.' The film concerns The Virgin Queen's growing attraction to a dashing newcomer, Clive Owen's Sir Walter Raleigh, during a time of political unrest. Thrown into the mix is a subplot concerning the fate of the scheming Mary Queen of Scots (Samantha Morton, criminally underused), Elizabeth's feeling the pressure of living so visibly to the public eye, Holy War with Spain and their nasty Inquisition, and a horse that jumps off a boat.
There's obviously an excellent story to be told with this material, but it's as if the film realizes half an hour in that it's bitten off more than it can chew and resolves to lay on the eye-candy hard and thick in an effort to distract us from just how convoluted its script is. Witness Rhys Ifans disappear into the mess after being set-up, along with Morton, as the film's sinister nogoodnik, only to leave absolutely no impression as the character goes nowhere. Abbie Cornish and Clive Owen fair slightly better, but only just, as their characters at least have the appearance of a narrative through line, but even they, two quite fine actors in their own right, find themselves merely ticking off plot points in an effort to push what story there is ever-forward and come off undercooked and oversimplified. But it's poor Geoffrey Rush who's drawn the short straw this time round. His Walsingham was such a key player in the original film; here he's basically an expositional mouthpiece who's thrown the sole dramatic bone of a small subplot involving the return of his Papist brother.
Blanchett is the real draw here, proving yet again why she's considered amongst the finest of her generation. Even as the film dissolves into a second half comprising a stretch of scattershot and impressionistic scenes that confuse rather than excite, Blanchett remains firmly on form, throwing into sharp relief just how much of a mess the film surrounding her becomes. In fact, once the midway point is reached, the film seems to do away with any notion of developing plot or character and comes off more as an extended trailer; glossy, gorgeous, the score all driving drums and soaring choirs, but absolutely nothing resonates. Here is a film that takes its most striking image  an armored, pale and auburn-haired Elizabeth astride a gallant white steed  and squanders it completely on a throwaway scene that's wholly robbed of any weight or power due to the lack of effort in developing what's come before. Elizabeth's rousing horseback speech to her troops before descending into battle should be stirring, the dramatic apex of the film where breaths are held and heartstrings tugged. Instead, it becomes another great-looking blink-and-you'll-miss-it flash that's all tell and no show, a final snatch at dramatic worth that rings hollow despite being delivered with genuine conviction on Blanchett's behalf.
Elizabeth: The Golden Age is a technically marvelous film that remains unsatisfying on almost every other level. The fire in the heart of Blanchett's Queen still burns bright; it's a pity the performance is done such a disservice by the film itself.