Helen Mirren is Wonderful

Rating: 10/10 (24 October 2006)

Helen Mirren does a fabulous job of conveying the confusion and pain that comes from a lifetime of restraining one's emotions and "doing things properly". I come from a family that has always prided itself on its restraint and dignity (we eat pasta, but find Italians confusing), and so watching Her Majesty struggle with the conflicts between her public and private lives gave me an awful lot to think about. Michael Sheen plays Tony Blair in his early, younger days in office, when Blair was still full of pep, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Sheen is a real cutey-pie in this part - even washes up the dishes for Cherie. Ya gotta love it. All in all, this is a good picture for people with brains and for those who are interested in the clash between the traditional and the modern.
I hope Mirren gets an Oscar for this, because then she would get an audience with the Real Queen Elizabeth II, and wow, would I like to be a fly on the wall for that one!