Noblesse Oblige.

Rating: 8/10 (24 January 2016)

This is pretty good, a perceptive and sensitive telling of the Queen's and the public's response to the sudden death of the more or less declassÃ© erstwhile and glamorous Princess Diana.
The public goes ape in their mourning. There are terraces of bouquets on the pavement around Buckingham palace. TV is full of Diana -- people weeping, wondering why Queen Elizabeth up there in Scotland, in Balmoral Castle, doesn't come down to London for the funeral, wondering why the flag isn't lowered to half mast.
On her part, Helen Mirren as Elizabeth doesn't know what all the fuss is about. After all, Diana is no longer a royal, more of an ex royal, who betrayed the family and spoiled the image of the monarchy. And the flag can't be lowered because it isn't shown in the absence of the Queen, so it's not even raised. Hubby Prince Philip, James Cromwell, a surname to conjure with in the history of British royalty, is openly angry about the whole affair. His chief concern is stalking this big stag that has been roaming the countryside but always keeping just out of rifle range.
Alex Jennings is Prince Charles, former husband of Diana, and plays the role as wishy washy and compliant. Other than anguish, it's difficult to know what he's thinking or feeling. Michael Sheen is Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, whose cojones are caught in a vice between the Queen and the public whom he represents. Sheen actually LOOKS like Blair.
The story is magnificently played and keenly written. Elizabeth, we learn, drives around the grassy, windswept Scottish glens by herself in a Range Rover. The vehicle stops dead after crossing a stream and the independent monarch determines that it needs to be towed and repaired. (She was a mechanic during the war.) So -- picture this -- the Queen is sitting alone at streamside, waiting grumpily for rescue. She looks up and there, on the other side of the brook is the stately stag, a vision of serenity, indifference, and majesty, a royal unto itself. She stares at it for a minute, then shoos it away before the rescue team arrives.
Unfortunately for the stag, it is bagged by a neighboring family. The Queen politely insists on visiting the estate and there hangs the carcass and on a table the noble head with its ornate antlers. The animal had been wounded and tracked for miles before being killed. Elizabeth caresses the furry cheek and mummers something about hoping it didn't suffer too much.
Boys and girls, my teacher in the sixth grade, one Miss Velma Spurge, taught us that this was called "symbolism." I'd expected something less from this production, an overdramatic, overwrought, overdone, spelling out of every scintillating tabloid detail.
But no. It's an adult tale. There are clips of Diana doing what Diana did, speaking openly to reporters about how she was resented by the royal family, speaking out about the many personnel mines left from the many forgotten wars in Africa and elsewhere that are now blowing the legs of children. She was the personification of the three virtues of Greek philosophy; she was honest, she was good, and she was well favored. It's no wonder the public were in love with her. Of course, to Elizabeth, her unsparing candor was irritating and she was an impulsive brat.
The Queen gives in to public demand and finally comes to London, perhaps wiser than when she left.