The Portrait

Rating: Null/10 (24 January 2007)

Stephen Frears surely knows how to start and end a movie, skills that amazingly rare to judge from what's in the world.
This film begins with a small vignette, having nothing at all to do with the story, but introducing the character Helen Mirren plays. That beginning bit begins withe her being imaged for public exposure and then looking directly at the camera as if to say: this, this is the portrait of me.
She is one of two queens in the story, the other being the ghost of Diana who is shown only in reference and only in public exposure.
The official queen is shown at home, watching TeeVee, and frumping around the estate. The story is a rather gauzy one. Part of it is the delving into deviance of (usually English) society, the one thing Frears does well in the middle of his movies. In this case we see the inexplicable business of a monarchy which exists solely to keep a national story suspended. The story is threatened and some sort of a national crisis is averted. Its engaging because every viewer will have lived through that period and this gives peeks into corners we may have wondered about at the time.
A second component of the movie is the supposed examination of character of this woman, and the huzzas that Mirren gets for her portrayal. We celebrate the performance only because the movie as a whole works. I can think of a dozen Mirren performances that are better suited to celebration. Ho hum. We see her grieve more for an animal than for Diana, act more out of fear than honor. We see Blair  our designated observer in the story  superficially evolve.
A third component has to do with the introspection in the thing. And that is the only bit I can recommend (other than the opening which it supports). The deal is all about story. Nations require a story so they can know who they are. The Brits aren't the most ridiculous people on the planet, but they are the ones who have most explored the foibles of their own national story in their art, so their introspection makes them appear more silly than the rest of us.
That national story includes the necessity of actors, so they hire a few nitwits to dress up and pretend to be monarchs. They are simply actors, no more. So the deal with this film is that we have an actress, Mirren, playing an actress who examines her role. Its a meaty opportunity and thank god we didn't get Dench, who I suppose would have been shoehorned in if not for her appearance. And it isn't that Mirren isn't intelligent enough to be an actor that shows how acting works. But Frears isn't interested and Mirren's style is more about showing her commitment to the role rather than exploring our commitment to it.
But that opening. Excellent.
Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.