The Queen

Rating: 6/10 (28 January 2007)

The Queen focuses on a few months in the reign of Great Britain's Queen Elizabeth II (Helen Mirren). Those few months begin with the landslide election of the young and dynamic Labour Party candidate Tony Blair (Michael Sheen) to the office of Prime Minister.
At home, the lives of the two principals of British rule couldn't be more different. Blair, whose wife Cherie (Helen McCrory) is a strong critic of the monarchy in general and the royal family in particular, breakfasts with three boisterous children and urges his staff to call him "Tony." The Queen has her day rigidly scheduled and is treated with distance and deference even by those closest to her. Unfortunately, the two are soon brought together in ways they couldn't have imagined to deal with a situation neither could have anticipated: the untimely death by accident of Diana, the former Princess of Wales.
Blair is wakened in the middle of the night by a telephone call giving him the news. The Queen, who is vacationing at Balmoral, has her sleep interrupted by her personal secretary, Robin (Roger Allam). Bizarrely, both watch the news unfold on television. With another call, they each receive the news that Diana has died of her injuries, and now must determine his or her next step. That's where differences between the two become a chasm Blair in particular fears cannot be breached.
Blair speaks immediately to the people, referring to Diana for the first time as "the People's Princess." The Queen, on the other hand, repeatedly points out that Diana is no longer known as HRH (Her Royal Highness), and her death is thus a private matter (to his credit, Prince Charles seems to realize that more is required from them than the family is offering long before the elder generation grasps the fact).
The growing resentment for the apparent lack of grief on their part combined with the need to express grief of their own escalated matters with the people to the point where even the Queen was forced to pay attention. What few but Tony Blair could understand at the time was that the Queen wasn't unfeeling, but was instead utterly lost in the midst of an unprecedented event for which there was no protocol she could reference and the nuances of which she genuinely didn't understand.
In the end, of course, Diana was given what the vast majority of people around the world felt was her due. She was laid to rest with every bit of pomp and circumstance royalty might expect, and she was mourned by all from those in government to those with great celebrity to ordinary men on the street who wept with their wives and their children when the casket passed them by.
Helen Mirren is deserving of the accolades she's received in this role. Though not overtly emotional  that's what the Queen has been criticized for, after all!  it's clear in the film at least that she's far from unfeeling. She's merely been trained to rise above her emotions and to present a calm and stoic face to her subjects no matter the provocation. That Mirren makes us actually see that without being told is an indication of just how very good she is. Michael Sheen also gives an excellent performance as Prime Minister Tony Blair, and his resemblance only adds to it.
Helen McCrory, James Cromwell, Sylvia Syms (as the Queen Mother), Alex Jennings, and Roger Allam are all good, too. McCrory in particular does a fine job, but part of that can be credited to her uncanny resemblance to the real Mrs. Blair. Cromwell is fine, but the otherwise perfectly good performances of Syms and Jennings are in my opinion significantly harmed by the fact that neither look much like the person they're supposed to be playing.
Director Stephen Frears (who also helmed the wonderful Mrs. Henderson Presents) does a nice understated job here. The interspersing of real news footage is a nice touch and unquestionably adds to the realism; putting it on the TV currently being watched by the Queen is especially deft. The script (by Peter Morgan, who also penned The King of Scotland), is okay, but I frequently found myself questioning various parts and pieces of it. Though I understand the story was written after a good deal of research and with the assistance of those close to the Prime Minister or the Royal Family, there are private moments that must, by definition, have involved guesswork. While I'm tempted to believe some of the guesses are accurate, I can't quite push myself over the edge into buying into the movie as a whole, and that hurt my overall enjoyment of it more than I'd like to admit.
The Queen is a reasonably good movie with spectacular sets and locations, and some very, very good acting. Anyone who appreciates those things will like The Queen. Those who remember Diana's death and who, even now, suffer a twinge of pain as a result, will also find much of The Queen of interest. On the other hand, those who don't care, and those uninterested in a behind the scenes look at royal protocol, aren't going to find much else of value in this movie. I recommend The Queen, but not without some reservations.
FAMILY SUITABILITY: The Queen is rated PG-13 for "brief strong language." I don't really see much here that wouldn't be okay for the average viewer of about age 10 and up. But the story itself is sufficiently mature, and frankly the rendering of it so staid (in fairness, that was intentional and it does help to convey the stuffy and stifling history of it all) that children aren't going to enjoy themselves at all. As such, I'd save this one for some evening when it's just the adults who are headed out for an evening at the movies.