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Control Issues Helen Mirren is fabulous. Even at sixty-two she is one of the most ridiculously sexy women to ever grace the silver screen. Abandon and control constantly struggle for dominance underneath the skin of her characters. This volcanic sexuality is a dynamic layer in most of her roles and is responsible for much of their richness so when I heard she got cast as Queen Elizabeth I was curious as to how this particular aspect of her talent would play itself out. Queen Elizabeth --" the entire royal family for that matter --" is all about control on principle. So naturally the control aspect of Mirren's talent has to take front and center. The passion has to simmer underneath. And that never shows itself almost at all until late in the movie when Elizabeth is speaking of when she became a queen and notes that she was just a child then. This role would be brutal for the vast majority of actors to pull off given these limitations, but Mirren is one of the great actors of our day, a woman of uncommon technique and instinct and her performance of Elizabeth is like fine porcelain. I had an ambivalent relationship with the movie. Not that there's anything wrong with it exactly. It's intelligent, well executed, all the different elements coming together to make a harmonious whole. But I was bored. And, if I'm honest I had a feeling beforehand that I would be. Movies about uptight British people loosening up (ever so) little don't move me. And that was it. It was exactly what I expected, well done sure, but not my >ahem< cup of tea. And yet...and yet... I wanted to know what was going to happen. Or how it was going to happen rather. I knew what happened. When Diana died it was huge. The world's reaction to her death -- and the royal family's lack of reaction -- was the story of the day. At the time I was not particularly moved. I was never under the Diana spell even during the days of the fairy-tale wedding. But there is no question she held the world in her thrall and except for maybe Madonna was the most famous woman of her day. But I was always amazed by the level of attention the royal family and their soap opera received in the United States. But in this movie, all about these characters I didn't particularly care about in real life, this story I had just wanted to get away from -- in this movie -- I couldn't just leave it alone. And a strange thing happened. I started to care. I didn't sympathize with the royal family but I could feel their bewilderment and pain and I was rooting for them to do the right thing. I started to warm (sort of -- okay, not really) to Tony Blair (Michael Sheen) and applaud his wisdom and willingness to do the right thing. The dialogue like the cinematography is crisp and efficient. But the magic of the movie is that quite suddenly you realize, that without your even noticing it was happening, the characters have been revealed. It's like you were watching to see the exact second when a flower has reached full bloom and then realize the moment has passed. My guess is the realization hits each audience member at a different point in the movie. The moment when Elizabeth finds herself in awe of a stag in the forest was the revelation for me. It's a moment that has to be earned. If you've been cheating the scene will ring false. But Stephen Frears (director) and Mirren nail it and it was at this point I realized that what had gone before made the stag moment possible because I understood who this woman was. The other compelling aspect of the movie is the myth of Princess Diana. Whatever the reality of who she actually was, her legend, her charisma is a force of nature that the royal family has to struggle with the same way a small town has to struggle to hold itself together against a flood or a tornado. In an age where we worship in cults of personality, Diana's was as powerful as any and in the movie it is this that is the antagonist to the heroine, Elizabeth. email this review to a friend
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