The Queen

Just as the academic year begins around September as opposed to January, the Hollywood year, or the year for movies that are Oscar contenders, begins around late February or early March. That extremely glorified awards show signifies both the culmination of the Oscar season as well as the start of a new competitive year. The Academy usually follows a fairly obvious formula of films they praise and films they shun. Though I do not place great importance on the opinions of these Academy members, I do still enjoy viewing as many of the nominated films as possible as most of them are quality works. With the nominations just announced, my already long list was lengthened with films I felt a real urge to see, especially before the Oscars.
One such film was The Queen, directed by Stephen Frears and starring Helen Mirren as the monarch, James Cromwell as Prince Philip, and Michael Sheen as Tony Blair. The film begins with Blair's appointment as Prime Minister in 1997, which was quickly followed by the shocking and untimely death of the former Princess, Diana. There was great general disapproval of the reaction of the royal family to the death, as they made no appearances or statements in the days immediately following the Princess' demise. On the persistent advice of the Prime Minister as well as the increasingly dismal newspaper headlines, the Queen eventually agrees to reject the customs with which she was brought up and publicly grieve with the rest of the country.
Frears gives us a unique focus on the Queen of England in the days following Diana's death, rather than a distant, prim and proper view of the monarchy. The approach greatly humanizes the Queen, as does Mirren's impressive embodiment of her. Mirren not only captures the seeming mannerisms and look of the Queen, but communicates her genuine reasons for reacting to the death of the Princess as she did. Michael Sheen also does an excellent job of capturing the early sentiments of the Prime Minister and his officers in the infancy of his administration; he also bears a striking resemblance to the young, jovial leader of Britain, which doesn't hurt.
The film has a sprinkling of real TV footage, both of the Princess and of events following her death, as well as manufactured TV footage for the film, such as of Sheen with the rest of the Blair family arriving at Downing Street (the location where the Prime Minister works). Adding to these interesting shifts in medium is a powerful, somewhat mournful score as the camera sweeps over the thousands of flowers layed outside Buckingham Palace or the hundreds of people crying and despairing in the streets of London. Some of the film's only oddities, however, are the sweeping aerials of Scotland, where the royal family was residing at the time of Diana's car accident. Though extremely enjoyable and breathtaking, I was somewhat at a loss to figure out quite how these frequent Scottish mountain views fit in with the story, other than to provide natural transitions.
Over all, this was very well made and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys great performances, witty English humour, and a new take on an event that affected the world at the time of its happening.