A wonderful and surprisingly entertaining Queen, with a knockout performance by Mirren!

Rating: 8/10 (29 December 2006)

The Queen, starring Helen Mirren, takes us deep into the monarchy and British government in the week Princess Diana died. Queen Elizabeth II and her family never had a solid relationship with Diana, and after they neglect to pay tribute to her grave or raise a flag at half mast in her honor, it the country almost turns on the monarchy completely. The film plays the inner conversations and workings of that week, recreating the constitutional world and all its sometimes players, as they try to deal with the fateful tragedy.
Much like 2004's Ray, or 2005's Capote, a lot of the attention of the film has been thanks to its lead performance, rather than the film itself. Helen Mirren has led one of the most dominating campaigns in Oscar history, winning every single critics award she could possibly win in this lead-up month of December, even going as far as winning at an African-American award ceremony, where normally only African-Americans are eligible. But, with all the hype, Mirren's praise and eventual Oscar is deserved. She is brilliant in the role, taking it past pure mimicry, with an unbelievably layered performance, showing all sides of Elizabeth seemingly easy. Part of the beauty of her work is that she needs no big scenes, no breakdowns, no showy moments, she plays the performance low-key and subtle, it is in the expressions on her face as she reacts to what people are saying, the way her mouth and face moves throughout the film, that make it brilliant.
Not to be outdone, the screenplay in The Queen absolutely shines. When dealing with a subject like inner monarchy and governmental politics in Britain, where the film mainly consists of people talking to each other, under normal circumstances there would be an opportunity for the film to bore, especially when dealing with someone like myself who knows nothing of the subject. But the screenplay is so sharp and upbeat, the film does the impossible of actually being very very entertaining throughout, to the point where its 1 hour 39 minutes fly by.
The film isn't necessarily heavy on plot and story complications, rather it is an in-depth look at what happened behind the scenes in that devastating week, re-creating the conversations of how to deal with it. While all the monarchy and government are regal, the film manages to paint them as people, whether it be something like Blair's off-shoot comments to his wife after first meeting Elizabeth, or the Queen driving a car into a river, where in one of the film's better scenes, she sees a large and beautiful stag, a symbolism for life and the beauty of it.
The direction, set design, use of real life footage, and ensemble acting besides Mirren, which would include charismatic Michael Sheen as Tony Blair, and other actors playing the parts of Prince Charles, Prince Philip, and Queen Elizabeth I, are all very solid. The Queen is a very well made film, and following in the footsteps of Ray and Capote, I consider it a strong enough film away from the main performance, to stand on it's own as an Oscar contender and worthy achievement to the most quality films of the year. While in the future it will not be remembered as much as something like The Departed from this year, The Queen stands as a worthwhile drama and tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and her toughness and persistence during the mother country's devastating week.
Review by Julien R., written for film site www.boxofficefanatic.com