THE QUEEN

Director: Stephen Frears (Dangerous Liasons, Hi Fidelity, My Beautiful Laundrette)
Starring: Hellen Mirren, Michael Sheen, James Cromwell

A feature film about the death of Princess Diana seems custom-made for cheese-dom. The subject screams 'tabloid press', 'Lifetime TV', even 'Elton John'. This film is not cheesy. This film is excellent. This film touches on many of the same soap-opera subjects as the tabloids (at least in regards to Princess Diana), but is never dumb, is never mundane, and is always enjoyable. This was a fun little picture about a death. Perhaps it was as fun a picture as could have been made about a death.

Hellen Mirren stars as Queen Elizabeth II of jolly-old England and is simply superb at it. She will likely get an Oscar nomination for this performance. Her Queen is tradition-bound, and rightfully so. Her Queen is tied irrevocably to her country and dedicated to the duties of her position. She has given her life to the role and deserves respect for it. Yes, the royals are quite foolish at times (even the Queen), but they are loved in Britain, and probably for good reason.

The film begins with the death of Diana and for the first half of the film we see the conflict between the newly elected Prime Minister Tony Blair, a young liberal populist, and the traditional, conservative, and arbitrarily wealthy, royals. Blair rightly guages the mood of his country after the death of Diana and advises that the Windsors treat her death with an exceptional respect and honor. Unfortunately, the Queen and her family did not really like Diana. They think her public persona is quite different from the difficult personality they dealt with directly. What they do respect, however, is tradition, and their tradition says that this woman was no longer a royal and therefore was not to be treated as Blair suggests. As the public outpouring of grief continues for Diana, it eventual switches to criticism of the Windsors. The public sees Diana as the good "People's Princess" and the royals as the stuffy, bitter old monarchs that killed her.

These events fit perfectly with our traditional American view of royalty as silly and archaic. Why, we think, would anyone need or want a king or queen? They should just get rid of them. The second half of the film begins to show us why, as we delve deeper into the Queen and her sense of duty and honor. The British love their monarch. They love the tradition and the bits of old England that still permeate their modern culture. Eventually we get an even handed portrayal of the benefits of change, and of tradition. There are good things to be had from each. Undoubtedly. The Queen is the ultimate symbol of tradition. Tony Blair represents the great changes that have and will continue in modern society. By the end of this film we get a wonderfully hopeful and positive view that these two often conflicting forces can work together, peacefully and harmoniously. Yay. Beyond all of this, the film just plain works as an interesting story about these people, and works well. Elizabeth is interesting. Tony Blair is interesting. Even the silly Prince Phillip and Queen mother are interesting in their dotish own way. The Queen as a film is immensely interesting.

Standouts: Helen Mirren, and the direction by Frears. Well done all around.
Blowouts: Not much. This is one of the better films of 2006.

Grade: A