The Queen

Some shift in values

2006

Review: October 20, 2006

Director: Stephen Frears

Starring: Helen Mirren, Michael Sheen, James Cromwell, Alex Jennings

Not needed, though it might be amusing.

THE SETUP:

The Queen adapts to the changed culture after Princess Diana’s death.

DISCUSSION:

This movie opens with Helen Mirren as the current Queen Elizabeth having her portrait painted. Mirren has perfected her long, droll face, and I began to know what we were in for as the audience I was with started laughing affectionately with a simple, very arch turn of her gaze toward the camera as the title appears on screen.

The first actual scene is of the Queen waking up on the morning that Tony Blair is elected Prime Minister. Blair and his wife have always been critical of the monarchy, especially Blair’s wife, and they are ironic as they are taught exactly when and how to bow. The Queen, by the way, remembers meeting Mrs. Blair previously precisely by the shallowness of her curtsey. And for a while, the movie is a very wry comedy of how fastidious [and a little ridiculous] all of these rituals are.

Then Princess Diana is killed. There is no actress playing Diana in the film, but we see a lot of archival footage, which is fine, but personally I don’t think we needed the recreation of her death, regardless of how tastefully it was handled. The next morning is all about the Royal Family receiving the news, and thus the real content of the movie begins.

Blair calls the Queen to see if she plans on making an official statement, or if the Royal Family will return to London from Balmoral. She doesn’t, and they won't. She tells him that Di’s family wants to have a private funeral. Intermingled with this is all sorts of arch commentary about the family’s disdain for Diana, with Cromwell saying at one point “she’s as much of a bother dead as she was alive.”

But the public outpouring continues to grow. Blair gets a lot of points early on for making the statement calling Diana the “people’s princess,” which is held in contrast to the Royal Family, who have said nothing. Then the flowers start to pile up, and the press gets nastier in their judgement about the Royal Family, although it has little effect on them. When someone tells the Queen that the flowers from the mourners are blocking their gate, she says “Ah yes. Well, throw them out.”

But the public response continues to grow, as do calls for the Queen to respond publicly in some way. Much of this is handled by Blair making calls to the Queen [who is not inclined to receive advice from this upstart], telling her that it would be well-received if she did this or that. Now, it may sound like the Queen is just cold and removed, but her perspective is that the people want the Monarchy to remain calm, cool and in control. She says that soon the hubbub over Diana’s death will die down “in favor of a period of restrained grief and private mourning.”

Obviously, they don’t, and the story of the movie is how the Queen changes her attitude, compromises, and finally makes a statement and appears to publicly mourn Diana, with Blair’s advice. Mirren is amazing in the role. It’s one of those movies where you’re really just watching a different person up there on screen, and she doesn’t drop her character for a second. Michael Sheen as Blair is very good as well, capturing his look, voice and gently prodding demeanor. James Cromwell is fine, looking about 14 feet tall when stood next to Mirren. My only problem was with Alex Jennings as Prince Charles, primarily because he looks nothing like him, and every time he appears on screen you sort of go “okay, who is that again?” Mirren, who has a number of great lines that convey the Queen’s sharp with and intelligence, responds to Charles' “Why do they [the public and press] hate us?” to which the Queen responds, “Not US.”

Much is made of a stag that Cromwell and Diana’s boys are going to go out and shoot. At one point the Queen is alone out on the heath, and comes across the animal, and admires its beauty and nobility. It is apparent that this animal stands in for her, we are supposed to compare her uniqueness and nobility to that of the stag. When she later finds out that the stag has been killed by a tourist at a neighboring lodge, she goes to view the decapitated animal [without a trace of pity or a speech about 'how could someone kill such a beautiful beast,' etc.] and sends her compliments to the hunter. I interpret this as her understanding that when there are magnificent stags in the world, there will always be people who want to hunt them. I really appreciated that the film just presents these events [which are fairly heavy-handed as they are] but refrains from hitting you over the head with a definitive interpretation. Anyway, at last the Queen acknowledges that there has been "some shift in values," and she responds to them. It's nice in that her intelligence and thoughtfulness IS the subject of the film, as well as the particular nature of that "shift in values."

As I said, I was under the impression that only the first half of this film would be about the Diana thing, so it was a total shock to me when suddenly the credits appear, and it’s over. That said, the entire movie breezed by so smoothly it really seemed to be only about 20 minutes long! I couldn’t believe 100 minutes had passed so quickly. All that said, in retrospect it may have seemed a bit slight. It does an excellent job of filling out the purview of the film, it’s just that the purview may be a bit small. Nevertheless, a well-made film with a smart script and excellent performances, particularly by Mirren, who pretty much HAS to be nominated for this.

SHOULD YOU WATCH IT?

Yes, it is well-done and features great performances, if it is, overall, a bit slight.