Start etching Mirren's name on the Oscar hardware

Rating: 9/10 (28 October 2006)

Every once and a while, you sit in a theatre completely memorized by an acting performance. I remember the press screening of Monster and how amazingly Charlize Theron was able to transform herself into serial killer Aileen Wuournos. The conversation amongst critics in the lobby after the showing was just aglow with 'just give her the Oscar' speeches.
We did the same for Nicholas Cage after Leaving Las Vegas and with Jamie Foxx in Ray. Sometimes an actor is just able to transform themselves into another character and is able to transport the audience to a time and place where they believe the character to be real and the depiction, flawless.
Well, here we go again. Helen Mirren as Queen Elizabeth in the new Stephen Frears film The Queen is the performance of the year. Bar none.
The Queen is the story of the how the Royal Family personally and privately dealt with the death of Princess Diana in late August of 1997. The film begins a few months earlier with the appointment of Tony Blair (Michael Sheen) as British Prime Minister. Blair's first encounter with the Queen and his orientation on how to act, move and deliver in front of her royalness gives us our first glimpse into the sheltered and privileged life of the monarchy.
Fast forward to August 30, 1997. We relive the events of that day in a reenactment that has paparazzi jumping on their scooters and following Diana with flashbulbs ablazing in the darkened Paris night. We watch as the car carrying the People's Princess goes into the tunnel and without showing any graphics of the accident on the screen, we recount the news reports and violent photos of the incident that the newspapers and television programs ingrained in our memory.
The Royals don't seem to comprehend the indelible imprint Diana made on both the British people and those around the world. As fans and mourners converge in London with flowers and well wishes, the Royals maintain that they want to keep the matter private and they fail to relate to the British people and their need to hear from the throne. It doesn't help that The Queen and family don't share any emotional attachment to Diana. They comment on how she is not part of the family and how Diana uses the press when it suits her and complains when they become intrusive.
It is here that Tony Blair comes to the rescue. Played with vigor by Sheen and using his Chaschire grin to his advantage, Tony brings a sane voice to a confused Palace. Still new to power but in front of the cameras as the Royal's cower in their lavishness, Blair is relentless in his attempts to have the Queen make certain statements such as a press statement and the lowering of the flag over the Palace, in an attempt to save the Queen and the family from the ruthless British Press that is asking in front page bold letters for the Royal Highness to recognize in some way the life of the beloved Princess.
The Queen is just as much a film about being out of touch with the changing world as it is about the death and reacts of the death of the Princess. As the Queen struggles with the understanding of her people (she cries more for a slain deer than she does for the death of a family member), you feel sorry for someone who has lived such a life of privilege and has been so sequestered from the everyday life of her people that they fail to understand and relate to anything outside of their twelve foot walls. As I watched  and I will be the only reviewer on the face of the earth to put these two in the same sentence  I thought of the Queen as I do Paris Hilton. It isn't Hilton's fault (well, not entirely) that she doesn't know the value of money or understand what a hard days work might entail. These rich folk live a life that we can't understand just as they have problems relating to the blue collar public.
And that is what makes The Queen so fascinating. To see Elizabeth II, Prince Phillip (James Cromwell holds his own against Mirren and has the best lines such as "Sleeping in the streets and pulling out their hair for someone they never knew. And they think we're mad!") and Prince Charles deal with the death in their own understanding is completely engrossing and the acting by all those playing members of the Royal Family are so convincing that you almost feel like you are sitting in Buckingham Palace listening to them squabble.
And it is the acting that separates The Queen from the average film. I could have sat and watched Mirren and Sheen for another hour as they talk about life, Britain and the people to which the rule. Interesting fact: Sheen is playing Blair again in another Stephen Frears film about his rise to power due out sometime in 2007. But it is Mirren that you will most remember. At a recent festival, her performance was met with a five minute standing ovation at the conclusion of the film. The only thing remaining is the hardware to go along with the performance and I bet you can safely begin to etch her name on the bottom of the Oscar with still two months of film releases to go.
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