The Real Star -- Diana

Rating: 9/10 (19 February 2007)

Helen Mirren will certainly deserve her Oscar next month. (Do you think the members of the Acadamy would dare snub the queen?) However without a doubt the real star of this fine movie is Diana Spencer. After wining the princess role by marrying Prince Charles, she never failed to upstage the royals at every turn and she manages to pull it off again in this movie. The whole point of the movie is to show how they agonize and struggle to deal with her -- even in death. It is truly a fascinating glimpse into the workings of the royal family.
For a thousand years, we (And let's not kid ourselves, Elizabeth is as much our queen as England's in spite of two hundred and thirty years official separation since the American Revolution.) have, in turns, revered and disliked the monarchy. We don't really understand them. The English don't understand them, and, in realty, they scarcely understand themselves. The one thing they have proved to be, over the many centuries they have been in place, is resilient. They are capable of evolving, be it at an ever so glacial pace. We leave the movie with a slightly better understanding of what it means to be Queen. The queen will overcome and survive without a doubt!
This movie captures exquisitely one of those evolution episodes. Excellently scripted, filmed, staged, conceived and produced. Kudos to all involved. Truly deserving of "best picture" they will surely get if the Acadamy can, for once, leave political correctness out of it.