Enthralls while it appalls.

Rating: 7/10 (17 November 2006)

The movie chooses a short span in time; the days following the death of Diana. This tilts the whole enterprise in favor of the fans of Diana the wronged, and against those who believe, as I do, that Diana, while put into an impossible situation, milked the media for as much sympathy as she could manage. She did not behave "Royally" and, because of this, was loved by those who saw the crown as either an anachronism or an aloof presence, and decried by those who saw her as not living up to her role as a public royal persona.
The centerpiece of course, and the hub around which the movie rotates, is Helen Mirren as Elizabeth. Coiffed to perfection in the famous matronly curls, she morphs effortlessly into the famous disciplined and bland grand matron. A Queen who is staunchly independent and rock sure of herself until she is faced with the prime crisis of her rule; when it slowly dawns on her that her subjects require of her a humanity and a sensitivity that she thought would undermine her role as stoic in chief.
Mirren is superb and will get nominated for this role. She has now managed to play both Queen Elizabeth's in the span of a year, and has done it oh so convincingly. Those who love her work should not miss her reprise of Inspector Tennyson on PBS this week, where she disappears again into a role that is so opposite of the Elizabeths in style, and yet so similar in strength.
Everyone else around her either sinks into caricature, or falters because of their dissimilarity to the real people. John Cromwell, while a strong actor, is wrong as the Duke: he's too craggy, too crabby, and too American. The Duke is chisel handsome, haughty, and speaks crisply. The woman chosen for the Queen Mum is also totally wrong. She's too big - rather than petite - and too slavic. The man playing Blair (Sheen?) certainly resembles him, but smiles to much and exaggerates the famous Blair exuberance to the point of seeming to be on speed. Even worse he reminded me of "Speedy" of Alka Seltzer fame.
While effort is made to make Charles appear sympathetic, the man chosen to play him never manages to capture his controlled, yet casual, hauteur, and whose face looks so unlike the long, oval, large featured, one of Charles, that I found myself having to remind myself of whom he was playing.
The problem of the movie is that it seldom rings true. The Blairs chatter to each other as if they have only just learned to explain themselves, while in fact they are being asked to do so for the audience. It is this insistence on continuously explaining the events to the audience that takes it from a drama to be observed and pondered over, to a soap opera, albeit a grand one at times, of "a week in the life of a Queen."