A great British film - The Queen is one of the best films this year.

Rating: 9/10 (20 October 2006)

The Queen is a highly original film - very few people have ever made a film about what happens behind the gates of Buckingham, and none have made one on such a controversial subject. This film is great in just about every aspect - the acting is absolutely top-hole and deserves Oscar/BAFTA nominations, the script is absolutely brilliant and captures the feel of life inside the more important places of Britain. The humour is sharp - though it won't be understood by all, and the settings are absolutely grand - Stephen Frears and co. must have been given permission to film inside residences of Her Majesty. As a Brit myself, I feel it is very good how The Queen has managed to speak out the truth about what happened in late 1997, rather than being afraid to tell the truth and ending up as a pile of patriotic, uplifting trash like most films do these days. This is without a doubt the best Brit flick of the year - it beats Stormbreaker hands down, and I hope it wins some awards - it is a breath of fresh air in modern cinema. The actors actually do look like the people they play - which is another positive thing about The Queen. So, why did I give it 9 out of 10? The problem was - there were just no emotionally striking bits in the film - some bits seemed a bit sentimental for the sake of it. But hey - with a film on such a tough subject matter as this - there have to be sentimental bits. And when they are completely washed away by a film as great as this, you sometimes forget they are there. This is great British film-making at its best - see it if you can. 9/10