A blockbuster of a performance by Mirren!

Rating: 10/10 (3 December 2006)

This is a movie to be savoured completely! Coming home afterward, it seemed too horrible to turn on the television and spoil the lingering effects of Helen Mirren's astounding performance. She has probably done in any chance of becoming Dame Helen Mirren but she so perfectly delivers one line in answer to Michael Sheen's Tony Blair line, "I hope you didn't feel managed in any way" that an Oscar is assured. Michael Sheen also delivers a multi-layered and engaging portrait of Tony Blair, helped immeasurably by the striking resemblance he bears to Blair. The mixture of real TV footage from the week surrounding Princess Diana's death with the enactment was brilliant. I felt that the portraits were sympathetic to the subjects.