Why Helen Mirren is one of the greats

Rating: 9/10 (21 November 2006)

From the opening scene of Queen Elizabeth sitting down for a portrait to the final moments of "The Queen," Helen Mirren completely holds Stephen Frears' film together.
If Mirren is not nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award - in my judgement, she also should win it - the Academy will seriously have to reconsider whether the Oscars honor the year's best.
Making a film about the Royals in the days after Diana's tragic death in 1997 might seem like an odd choice. But Frears and screenwriter Peter Morgan - who incidentally teamed up three years ago for "The Deal," which featured Michael Sheen as Tony Blair - have turned what could very easily have been a trashy tabloid story into a compelling, moving and utterly enthralling political drama.
Yes, we know Frears and Morgan are merely supposing what happened behind close doors at Balmoral. But their imagination seems to have concocted an awfully good tale of intrigue and political maneuvering, while raising interesting questions about the British Monarchy and whether such a traditional institution can exist in a society that changes almost daily.
This is a story of Blair vs. ERII. The question is not whether Diana's death should have created the worldwide outpouring of grief that it did or why, but what the British government and QEII were going to do about it. Whether the grief was warranted or not, it happened. It is understandable that the House of Windsor didn't quite understand why it was happening or how to react. After all, they were more familiar with the British stiff upper lip response, which is what they expected.
The conflict between Blair and Elizabeth makes for exciting viewing. Morgan's script is smart, literate and works in small scenes. His characters are all incredibly well developed. He creates intrigue by carefully calculating the give-and-take between the palace and Downing Street. At times, "The Queen" works as an effective political thriller, something I was not expecting and extremely and pleasantly surprised to see.
Frears directs the film expertly. He never over-directs any scene, allowing his film to work in small moments rather than grandiose scenes. He never opts to turn his film into a maudlin and trite story - which could very easily have happened - and many a filmmaker could learn from Fears' use of music. He never lets the score overpower a scene - something American filmmakers should learn how to do - and those moments are more poignant and trenchant because he lets his actors and the situation dictate the emotion.
But the film belongs to Mirren. Frankly, I can't ever recall seeing Mirren give a bad performance. She's been in some films that haven't exactly been brilliant, but Mirren's always shone.
She so completely gets into Elizabeth's persona and - thanks to some terrific make-up, too - there were times I forgot I was watching an actress play Elizabeth. Mirren's performance isn't only regal and elegant, never once betraying her character's stoic or sturdy center, but it also is beautifully understated. She conveys more in just a suggested look on her face than many actresses can with hundreds of lines.
Whether "The Queen" defends the monarchy or repudiates it is up to you. But the film is not really interested in that issue. It attempts to provide a fictionalized glimpse into a guarded institution at a time when the British people seemed desperately in need of a leader to guide them.