God Saves?

Rating: 6/10 (6 March 2016)

This rating is probably a little more generous than the film truly deserves, which is a shame since it comes from director Stephen Frears (of The Hit and High Fidelity among many other notables), and of course carries a serious pedigree with not only Helen Mirren but James Cromwell and, the one given the most character to play with Michael Sheen as Tony Blair. They all are in service of a story which is not really that interesting, or as captivating as it thinks it is.
Of course the death of Princess Diana rocked the world with grief - or many parts of it, I can't speak for all if it, I just knew what I saw as a kid on TV at the time - and the whole narrative thrust of this film, which mostly takes place in a week's time give or take a day, is 'What will the Queen DO to respond to this national tragedy?' We're told a lot of things about how the Monarchy usually acts, and especially in this case it was tricky since it was the "English" way was to keep grief as a "personal" matter (of quiet desperation, Pink Floyd might say, but I'd say more like upper-crust, stuffy reserve is more like it). And, also of course, Diana's life was made anything but impersonal by the media.
I think that how much you personally care about the Monarchy, what you think of its relevance for modern society (as in the past 25/30 years) matters watching The Queen because they are the chief component of it. And from what Frears and company show here, they were very sympathetic; what is it they DO that would keep them away from the (arguably) over-reaching frenzy of the public in their reaction to the Diana tragedy? Well, lots of hunting and walking the dogs and reading newspapers and tea time and other such things. For me, it doesn't exactly make them, or the Queen, seem very conflicted, and that's the problem with the movie.
I actually would have been intrigued to see a Tony Blair movie, just about him, from seeing his work here: Sheen does an excellent job, as does the writing of him, to make Blair much more conflicted and have to deal with he pressures of public perception (and also the fact that he becomes sort of a glowing figurehead with his "People's Princess" remark). But his story is squeezed together with this supposed conflict of the Queens, which doesn't make for a terribly compelling arc. For most of the movie she is reluctant/hesitant/won't be in public to mourn, then she sees a giant elk, sheds a tear, and decides to do it. While she starts in one place and ends in another, and does have lots of conversations (like with the "Queen Mother", even more of an old-time blue-blood than she), there's too much telling and not enough showing of the change.
Mirren is it goes without saying a tremendous talent, and I understand why the old-stuffy AMPAS gave a figure who was old-stuffy like Queen an Oscar (ironically they didn't give it to the most deserved that year Judy Dench for Notes on a Scandal, I imagine because they might've reasoned she already got hers... for playing Queen Elizabeth for 8 minutes in Shakespeare in Love). But it's not a character that gives the actress too much to do - or, rather, she has to do a *lot* to try and make her at least watchable and have these internal problems to deal with. Maybe they do show up and my own lack of concern for the monarchy showed, but it's also worth as a criticism to point out the movie didn't do enough to make me care as I should.
Perhaps as a longer series this could work better, where we could see Blair and the Queen as (co) protagonists dealing with British affairs in their time (there's a hint about the troubles Blair would come across in the early 2000's as part of the Iraq war effort, at least that's how I read into it). As it stands it's not bad, but it's not terribly memorable either, except as Oscar-baiting regal drama with the occasional wink and nod to the audience about how stuffy this group is. From Frears, I would've expected more though.