Flawless performances, splendid script

Rating: 10/10 (29 October 2006)

Helen Mirren gives the performance of a lifetime in this film that depicts the months around the death of Diana "the people's princess" 9 years ago and focuses mainly on the interaction between herself and the newly elected prime minister, Tony Blair, played almost eerily by Michael Sheen. Indeed the whole cast is flawless.
The script is subtle and the cinematography spellbinding. The queen, with her regal waddle and her careening dogs, are captured to such a degree on screen that one is there, in that brief few months of time, as she vacillates as to what to do in the light of her public's adoration for the ex-wife of her son. Her instinct tells her to remove herself and her family to her estate in Scotland where her husband, Prince Philip, played by the reliable James Cromwell as a stiff twit, insists on taking Diana's young sons out for a spot of shooting helpless highland creatures to get their minds of their mother's death.
This could all come off as crude caricature in the style of "Spitting Image" but thanks to the remarkable director, Stephen Frears and a tight script by Peter Morgan, it brings out the humanity in all concerned.
Alex Jennings, as Prince Charles, gives a wonderfully understated performance as the lost Crown Prince, distant from his mother, concerned for his motherless boys and adamant of his attendance on Diana in Paris against his mother's wishes. Sylvia Syms is a delightful surprise as a gin-soaked Queen Mother far removed from any compassion.
It is made totally clear that the family had no time for Diana either in life or now in death and they want her buried in a hurry by the Spencer family so that they all can get on with their lives.
The story of the Queen's about face on her decision is the bones of the film and it is riveting right to the end. A rare 10 out of 10 from me. I would see it again and probably again.