An Overdue Support for HM

Rating: 9/10 (14 November 2006)

Hellen Miren rightly received high honors from the audience when this film showed in Europe. Honors are due all around for the acting, filming and the writing, particularly. However, what makes this film so powerful is its verisimilitude and the subject--no pun intended--of the drama: Queen Elizabeth II herself.
I saw this movie twice and noted particularly the audiences' reactions. The first audience got off to a tittering start at the first, when after the credits, the Queen, sitting for her portrait in Garter regalia, turns from three quarter view to look into the lens directly. A dumb move by the director, guaranteed to raise a laugh. The second audience didn't laugh at this, or at the rest of the film, either; perhaps they too were seeing it for a second time.
The persona of the Queen is consistent, and that is the power. Even when unaware of the death-of-Elvis hysteria mounting in London she comes across as dutiful and dignified. When, ultimately, she bends to the vox populi, it is obvious that she doesn't understand the frenzy, but is doing what she believes is required of her. It is this dignity and duty that affect one, and strongly, for it is in such contrast to the behavior of everyone else (including her heir). What we see is Authority as we want it to be over-run by the dirty world of reality.