The Queen

The Queen is the best film I've seen so far this year. It is, at the surface, a fly-on-the-wall look at what happened between Queen Elizabeth and Prime Minister Tony Blair following the death of Diana, so in a thumbnail, this film is about planning a funeral. But it is so much more than that. At its broadest, the film is about modernization, and pulling an institution that has traditions a thousand years old into the era of Oprah.

I'm not sure how accurate it is. There is no source material listed for Peter Morgan's excellent script, so I don't know if someone who worked for the palace or the PM wrote a tell-all. It may all be complete guess-work, for certainly the royal family wouldn't have participated, as some of them come off quite badly, particularly Prince Philip, who is portrayed as a clueless and mean old codger. Prince Charles is acted as decent but feckless. Elizabeth is painted as far more complex. She is a woman who knows nothing but her insular life, and has for close to fifty years sacrificed a normal life to be sovereign. But she grows over the course of the picture, and her decision to accept Blair's advice and make a public statement about Diana's death is shown to be the tumultuous event that it must have been.

The peformances are all wonderful, particularly Helen Mirren as the Queen. She should start rehearsing her Oscar speech now. Michael Sheen, as Blair, will also be Oscar bait, and Alex Jennings is suitably facile as Charles.

The direction is by Stephen Frears, who has been uneven lately, but scores big here. Every decision seems to work. There is a sub-plot about a stag running wild on the Balmoral estate that becomes a metaphor for the monarchy. If it had been explained to me I would have thought it ridiculous, but it works perfectly.

What will remain with me longest is the subtle things that show the changing times--a monarch from a line going back a thousand years, but using a cell phone, or watching TV, or receiving a fax. These are somewhat jarring, but indicative of the modernization theme. I wonder if this film will ever be secretly screened in the royal apartments?