Ruling from a cocoon of nutters...

Rating: 7/10 (10 October 2007)

Great Britain's Queen Elizabeth II comes under fire from her people after her stoic dignity prevents her or any of the Royals from showing public grief after the passing of Princess Diana of Wales. Newly-appointed Prime Minister Tony Blair takes it upon himself to try to rally the British Monarch, yet one can sense that Her Majesty's personal ill-will towards Diana (plus a complete ignorance on the Queen's part over how much Diana was truly loved by the nation) is keeping her from connecting to the public--and perhaps to the vulnerable woman hidden deep within herself. Despite the interpolated news-footage and interviews with the real Lady Diana (which are distinctly jarring in this dramatization), "The Queen" is a careful, often amazing and emotional re-staging of recent history. There is hardly a feeling of suspicion in lieu of its facts--we in the audience believe just about every word of it--and this is due to both the superb screenplay by Oscar-nominated Peter Morgan and the leading performance by Oscar winner Helen Mirren, who captures the sometimes-imposing/sometimes-not Queen of England with grace and bemusement. *** from ****