Affecting, entertaining, dignified film-making

Rating: 9/10 (13 December 2007)

It seems conceivable that without Helen Mirren, Stephen Frears would have been completely unable to make "The Queen". However with her in the title role, the story of the days following Princess Diana's untimely passing in 1997 is able to be told with heart, honor, and dignity. Mirren's real-life character of Queen Elizabeth II represents the old guard of British royalty, unwillingly brought into high status as a teenager, but left to represent and respect the protocol of her standing which is exactly as she saw it after Diana's accident. The British public called for some presence and acknowledgement of their mourning from the royals, but the Queen stood by her resolve and faced the negative press for it. Mirren brings a great pulse to a person who would have been merely the conflicted antagonist in a different sort of film. This is not to state that Mirren pulls this film all by herself. A strong supporting cast and archival footage that encompasses a surprising amount of the plot add additional dimensions to this fine slice of real-life drama.