A Great Film About An Extraordinary Week

Rating: 10/10 (6 October 2006)

No one above the age of about five in 1997 will forget the week that Princess Diana died. Never outside war time has Britain been in such an obvious state of collective shock. Whether you feel that this event was absurd (as some including myself do) or not you can't deny it happened.
Stephen Frears has chosen to dramatize that week to question the role of the monarchy and it proves to make a brilliant film. I personally think that the most impressive portrayal is of Tony Blair - the youngest Prime Minister of the 20th Century at the peak of his political grasp and influence. The film does not hesitate to underline that this was a rare occasion when a politician really understood the public mood and was rightly commended for his leadership.
The other major portrayal - of our Captain General Queen Elizabeth is very good but I don't think Helen Mirren is really stiff enough! She's just a bit too twinkly eyed to successfully play a woman who has been guarded in public for 50 years. Anyone doubting this should watch the footage of Rolf Harris painting her portrait - vanilla ice cream is less frosty.