The TGIF Movie Review: The Queen
June 29th, 2007 by Matt
The Queen loosely tells the story of the death of Princess Diana, the reaction of Queen Elizabeth and the royal family, and the ways in which newly elected Prime Minister Tony Blair at first uses the media to help his popularity, and then to help the crown. There you go. That’s the Cliffs Notes version of the plot. And like Cliffs Notes, the plot here is secondary to the ways this film functions as a piece of art.
First, I can’t write a review of this movie without mentioning the complete shape-shifting done by Helen Mirren as the Queen. While her role might not be flashy and splashy like previous Oscar winners, but she was spot-on in terms of tone, and she never, as they say, “broke character.” She pulled off stoicism, quiet bitterness, and brief moments of heartache with a subtly rarely seen. In an odd way, she reminded me of Bill Murray in Lost in Translation. I’m not sure how else to describe her masterful turn other than to say it was delicately human, as close to nonfiction as a fiction can be. If nothing else, I’d recommend this movie just to see what she manages to pull off in 90 minutes. It’s reminds me of the realism paintings from the 18th century.
But for me, this movie was really about the absolute ridiculousness of royalty, the bizarrely ominous power of the Queen, and the way her family has a vice-grip on her country. The film begs the question: why on earth should one person bow to another? There is no answer other than one should never bow to another person. While it might seem like a necessary bit of courtesy and protocol, it’s actually an exercise in dehumanizing absurdity. We’re left thinking — because it’s probably true — that the royal family of England lives in a fantasy land of pomp, rules, and a self-imposed sequestering.
And for me, this movie was really about the rise and fall of Tony Blair. When the film opens, he’s just been elected as a maverick, a modernist and reformer, ready to turn England into a more progressive country. After Diana’s death, he becomes even more popular. All this seems to link to his current fall (which is absent from the film). These days, as his tenure comes to a close, he is leaving his post in disgrace, having embroiled his country in a war of choice, in a war of the kind of imperialism his initial election seemed to reject.
If you’re a fan of pitch-perfect acting, of smart editing done for the sake of delicate tension, of politics and cultural criticism, then this is a must see.
See for yourself…
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