Surprisingly fair assessment of the times

Rating: 8/10 (11 September 2009)

I was expecting a hatchet job on the royal family when this film was first announced. My interest in seeing it was increased mainly because Helen Mirren was playing Queen Elizabeth II and Stephen Frears was directing. I wasn't sure how Frears views the royal family so I was still anticipating a negative 'take' in the film.
I was very surprised by the final result. Frears gives a pretty fair and unbiased representation of the events surrounding the death of Princess Diana without throwing in too much street legend stuff, such as the popular, at the time, belief that the Queen had had Diana's car booby-trapped, and other such nonsense. And Tony Blair was presented in a most interesting light.
One of the best scenes was when he lashes out at Alastair Campbell (Mark Bazeley) and defends the Queen against the blind bias against all the so-called royal parasites that is promulgated by the mainstream press. Michael Sheen is very good as the Prime Minister and Mark Bazeley's snaky Campbell is utterly loathsome in his Machiovellian manoeuvrings.
It was also gratifying to see Princess Diana presented in a more objective light. Her public image was much different from her real self. Those who knew her, and have written or commented about her, often say that Princess 'Di' was neurotic, manipulative and, some said, quite mad. There is a telling photograph of her near the end of the film that shows her looking side-wise at the camera with a really knowing and nasty look in her eye. She was no angel and it was about time someone had the guts to say it. Frears did this and for that he has risen in my estimation of his cinematic integrity.
Helen Mirren is sensational as the Queen. I also liked the smug, cynical Cherie Blair of Helen McCrory whose home life centers around the kitchen table, with Cherie doing the cooking and Tony the washing-up; at odds with her liberated woman image. She reminded me of Mme. Krupskaya, Lenin's wife; full of ambition and slavish devotion, larded with henpecking pinpricks delivered with balls and impertinence.
The only aspect of this film I did not like was the presentation of the Queen Mother as an alcoholic. She was not an alcoholic, though she, like countless millions of us, liked her cocktails. I thought the emphasis on her drinking was unworthy of the film-makers and certainly undeserved by the late Queen Mother. I have noticed other films involving her character, like 'The Cambridge Spies' also present her as a constantly tippling lush.
It's a good film and provides a lot of unexpected food for thought without slamming a lot of anti-Royalist rubbish in your face.
Something, then, to watch with great pleasure on occasion.