Forget the hype - this is simply not a good film.

Rating: 3/10 (3 April 2007)

You've heard the hype, you've read about the Oscars. you've seen Helen Mirren on the TV. You've even read the reviews. You could be forgiven for having been brainwashed into thinking this was the best film of the year. But the sad truth is that the King's Magic Suit Of Cloths has been at work here - this is not a brilliant film, it is certainly not a great film, this is just a very ordinary film - a very ordinary film indeed. Now let's look at why this is. Firstly, the story. We all know it anyway - we lived through it and there are no surprises, no twists, no turns. It just rolls along, never deviating from the rather boring reality, because this film doesn't know if it supposed to be fact or fiction. I know Mirren is supposed to be some sort of National Treasure and I'm sure she is a very nice person, but a great actress she is not. In fact, she is the best of the bunch in this film - the rest are really just actors trying to be impressionists. You feel they are gladly taking their money but are rather embarrassed by what they are doing.
There is a big difference between being an impressionist and acting. Pretending to be Tony Blair by looking like him, speaking like him and adopting his mannerisms is not acting. If impressionists are the height of your artistic appreciation, that may be fine for you. Unfortunately the Mrs Blair character does not even manage to be an impression - just very very sadly comic (ho ho ho - she doesn't know quite how to curtsy!). Mirren may be made up to look a bit like the Queen but so what - any female impersonator could do that. And so it goes on - replaying what we already know, played by a bunch of impersonators, not having any sort of climax or decent ending at all really. In fact, it's all a bit pointless. If it was a "made for TV" this could have been a reasonable effort. As a "big" film, it is a poor effort - poor in concept, poor in achievement. If you watch the DVD and listen to the Directors commentary, what strikes you is how embarrassed he obviously is by the "success" his little film has achieved. That's about all you will get from the commentary - it's just two guy's chatting away for their own amusement, not caring a jot about their audience - a piece of self-indulgence if ever their was. An insult to the audience. On the very next day I watched The Quiet American - a beautifully crafted film, beautifully acted, superbly directed and stunningly photographed. What a contrast.