Extraordinary Mirren *IS* Queen Elizabeth II

Rating: 9/10 (8 October 2006)

While watching this pitch-perfect character piece unfold on the screen, not for one moment did I think to myself, that's Helen Mirren up there playing the Queen. Mirren has long been of my favorite actresses, and her performance is riveting... so far removed from Prime Suspect's terse and gritty Jane Tennison that it's hard to believe you're seeing the same person. Michael Sheen's Tony Blair starts out seeming a little like Eric Idle playing the Monty Python version of a Prime Minister, but he quickly grows into the role, and as the relationship with his monarch uncomfortably develops, his eventual explosion at his staff's callousness is unexpected and passionate. Among the other members of the royal family, Prince Charles comes off the best, though not without a suggestion of self-interest as his motivation for wanting to do the right thing by the late Diana. Least sympathetic are the perpetually annoyed-by-it-all Prince Philip, convinced hunting will deflect his grandsons' grief (an amusing turn by PETA member James Cromwell); and more surprisingly, Sylvia Syms' oblivious Queen Mother; both apparently devoid of any emotion or real concern that their country sees Diana's death as a personal tragedy. Mirren portrays Elizabeth II as so independent, self-confident, and non-imperious, you wonder why she puts up with them, but of course that's the crux of the drama: she sees it as her duty to maintain a facade of family harmony, something in which Diana failed; and it's the heart of her dilemma: how does she give her subjects the comfort which all her upbringing and respect for tradition tells her is inappropriate?