The Best and Most Entertaining History Lesson of the Year

Rating: 9/10 (22 March 2007)

"You met me at a very strange time in my life", The Narrator, from Fight Club (1999).
Just like The Narrator, we meet Elizabeth II, Queen of England, at a very strange time in her life. The film starts in May of 1997. Tony Blair (Michael Sheen), leader of the Labour Party, had just won the general election, ending 18 years of government by the Conservative Party. 3 months later, Diana, Princess of Wales, died after a car crash in Paris. Initially, The Queen (Oscar winner Helen Mirren) wanted the funeral to be a private one, since Diana was no longer part of the royal family. She also thought there was no need to address the nation regarding this event. But slowly, The Queen starts to realize people from all over the world are accusing her of not showing enough grief over Diana's death. If that wasn't enough, she later finds out 25% of the British people want to get rid of the monarchy altogether. For the first time in her life, The Queen, who had always thought nobody knows the British citizens more than she does, feels she has completely lost touch with her people. Some radical changes had to be made.
Unlike what you might expect, The Queen is not a boring history lesson. In fact, I thought it was very entertaining. That was mainly due to Peter Morgan's (Last King of Scotland) great script, and the amazing directing done by Stephen Frears (High Fidelity).
The script is very witty, full of emotional moments, and often darkly funny. I guess nobody will ever know what really happened behind the scenes in the week following Diana's death, but I think Morgan tried to make the story as accurate as possible. Also, I liked the film's main theme, tradition vs. modernism, and thought it was quite relevant. Morgan even had the courage to take some stabs at Diana (apparently, how she was an attention-seeking drama queen).
Frears did a great job. He created a fascinating portrayal of the royal family after the tragedy. The only minor problem I had was with Prince Philip. I felt he was a little too cartoonish. The use of real-life footage and integrating characters from the film into them was a masterful decision. It made the film much more real. The film never drags, and is almost always beautiful to look at.
Now, we come to the million-dollar question. Did Helen Mirren deserve winning every single female acting award this year? Well, the answer is pretty simple, and is a big fat YES. She gave a controlled and multi-layered performance. What's even more impressive is that there were no "big" acting scenes, Mirren was much more subtle than your typical Oscar winner. I also have to note that Sheen was excellent as the young, enthusiastic, prime minister.
So, I'd definitely recommend seeing The Queen. It's an entertaining, well made, Oscar winning film. It's about one of the biggest tragedies of recent times, and it has some of the best performances of the past year. What more could you ask for?