Review 566: The Queen

I think Roger Ebert said it best when he described The Queen is "a spellbinding story of opposed passions."

In 1997, the film takes over an entire week and depicts the death of Diana, Princess of Wales and the impact on the Royal Family as well as the general public.

What The Queen does so well is showcase the Five Stages of Grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Initially, the Royal Family want to keep the Princess Diana's death as a private matter and not as an official royal death. This serves as a terrific contrast between Prime Minister Tony Blair's views who understood that the general public had a right tor grive.

An impressive descision on director Stephen Frears part was to incorporate Princess Diana into the film via stock footage as opposed to casting an actress in the part. This helps to reinforce the fact this is very much a docudrama, something that actually happened and what an important figure she was to the country.

The cinematography is  the cotumes are excellent, the production design (recreating late 90's London) is terrific, the score by Alexandre Desplat is beautiful, 

Helen Mirren is a standout playing Queen Elizabeth II.
 
Michael Sheen (reprising a role he played in the 2003 Channel 4 film "The Deal") is simply brilliant playing Prime Minister Tony Blair. At the time, Blair had only been in office for three months so it very much a trial period for him. He had to make difficult descisions regarding both the Royal Family

Roger Allam is playing Robin Janvrin, The Queen's private secretary providing a dry foil to Helen Mirran's monarch.

Helen McCroy is also a  playing Cherie Blair, the wife of Tony Blair. Having their family being brought into this new

5/5.

The Anonymous Critic.