Watch The Queen For Free

People are voting emotionally.

Great Film overall

An action-packed slog

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

When thinking about which actress is tailor-made to play Great Britain's reigning head of state - Queen Elizabeth II - there is a very short list of names that one can put together. Chief among them is Helen Mirren, and the legendary actress got her chance to portray what is perhaps the role of a lifetime in 2006's 'The Queen.'The film looks behind the curtains of Buckingham and Balmoral to show the royal family's thought process and sparring with newly-elected Prime Minister Tony Blair (Michael Sheen) in the hours and days following the tragic death of Princess Diana - "the People's Princess." This glimpse into a circle of people that is rarely possible is what many found to be the main draw in the best picture-nominated film, and while there is an all-star cast here (James Cromwell as Prince Philip, Sylvia Syms as the Queen Mother and Alex Jennings as Prince Charles), Mirren's first-rate delivery of Elizabeth II's calculating, cold demeanor during this period in her life is really what everyone is here for - and the Academy agreed, handing Mirren a gold statue for best performance by an actress in a leading role.While it's true that Mirren steals every scene she's in, Sheen's portrayal of Blair is also to be respected. The rivalry that forms between the two, including the divergence in the public's perception of them, is clearly evident, but as only the Brits can do, they disagree with class. Another element that makes 'The Queen' a powerful film is its soundtrack. Alexandre Desplat proves once again why he is a go-to for soundtracks of serious dramas.'The Queen' is another reminder that audiences are fascinated with royalty, and how a great film can be created by focusing on angle and side of a well-known event that few were aware of.

The casting stands out first, just about every character is so like the real person it is like watching a documentary. and what they say is believable too. The queen of course, and the Duke, and Charles, and Blair the new prime minister and his wife. All great.The sad events of the era, the death in very suspicious circumstances of Diana, and then the problems of how the royals react is all here.A thought does occur to me, afterwards, that Blair's ambition to change and improve Great Britain seems to have been lost in the subsequent years. My guess is that Blair will now be regarded as just another...whatever, and who-cares. So much was promised?

I have never been following the royal British family very closely, so I don't really remember how the situation was back then, in relation to the untimely death of Princess Diana. The actual reaction of the individual members of the family is difficult to assess, compared to the real history, but the overall reactions of the royal institution are spot on. This stubborn, old-fashioned, cold & cynical clinging to tradition and protocol that; inhibits the family from reacting like human beings is both outdated and outrageous. And it offends me grossly. The queen, Elizabeth II, is shown as a woman, raised by these beliefs and hence very correct, and seemingly emotionally detached from reality. It is difficult to hold it against her though, when you look at the company she's in: married to Prince Phillip who almost aggressively protects these protocols, and the child of Queen Elizabeth I, a firm believer in the old-ways. The only one in the Queens family that questions these traditions is the Queens oldest son, Prince Charles. Regrettably the relationship shown between mother and son might just as well have been that of strangers. The only one, (with the power to do something about it) that opposes of this system, is the newly elected prime minister, Tony Blair, who throughout the film tries to salvage the situation for the royal family.The story is already well known, so the outcome couldn't be a surprise, but it still pleases me to see how the prime minister and his staff finally gets through to the royal institution, and how the Queen finally chooses to go against tradition, and partake in the public mourning. She redeems herself as a human being, showing a Queen in touch with her subjects, instead of the detached cynical woman showed first.

This rating is probably a little more generous than the film truly deserves, which is a shame since it comes from director Stephen Frears (of The Hit and High Fidelity among many other notables), and of course carries a serious pedigree with not only Helen Mirren but James Cromwell and, the one given the most character to play with Michael Sheen as Tony Blair. They all are in service of a story which is not really that interesting, or as captivating as it thinks it is.Of course the death of Princess Diana rocked the world with grief - or many parts of it, I can't speak for all if it, I just knew what I saw as a kid on TV at the time - and the whole narrative thrust of this film, which mostly takes place in a week's time give or take a day, is 'What will the Queen DO to respond to this national tragedy?' We're told a lot of things about how the Monarchy usually acts, and especially in this case it was tricky since it was the "English" way was to keep grief as a "personal" matter (of quiet desperation, Pink Floyd might say, but I'd say more like upper-crust, stuffy reserve is more like it). And, also of course, Diana's life was made anything but impersonal by the media.I think that how much you personally care about the Monarchy, what you think of its relevance for modern society (as in the past 25/30 years) matters watching The Queen because they are the chief component of it. And from what Frears and company show here, they were very sympathetic; what is it they DO that would keep them away from the (arguably) over-reaching frenzy of the public in their reaction to the Diana tragedy? Well, lots of hunting and walking the dogs and reading newspapers and tea time and other such things. For me, it doesn't exactly make them, or the Queen, seem very conflicted, and that's the problem with the movie.I actually would have been intrigued to see a Tony Blair movie, just about him, from seeing his work here: Sheen does an excellent job, as does the writing of him, to make Blair much more conflicted and have to deal with he pressures of public perception (and also the fact that he becomes sort of a glowing figurehead with his "People's Princess" remark). But his story is squeezed together with this supposed conflict of the Queens, which doesn't make for a terribly compelling arc. For most of the movie she is reluctant/hesitant/won't be in public to mourn, then she sees a giant elk, sheds a tear, and decides to do it. While she starts in one place and ends in another, and does have lots of conversations (like with the "Queen Mother", even more of an old-time blue-blood than she), there's too much telling and not enough showing of the change.Mirren is it goes without saying a tremendous talent, and I understand why the old-stuffy AMPAS gave a figure who was old-stuffy like Queen an Oscar (ironically they didn't give it to the most deserved that year Judy Dench for Notes on a Scandal, I imagine because they might've reasoned she already got hers... for playing Queen Elizabeth for 8 minutes in Shakespeare in Love). But it's not a character that gives the actress too much to do - or, rather, she has to do a *lot* to try and make her at least watchable and have these internal problems to deal with. Maybe they do show up and my own lack of concern for the monarchy showed, but it's also worth as a criticism to point out the movie didn't do enough to make me care as I should.Perhaps as a longer series this could work better, where we could see Blair and the Queen as (co) protagonists dealing with British affairs in their time (there's a hint about the troubles Blair would come across in the early 2000's as part of the Iraq war effort, at least that's how I read into it). As it stands it's not bad, but it's not terribly memorable either, except as Oscar-baiting regal drama with the occasional wink and nod to the audience about how stuffy this group is. From Frears, I would've expected more though.