Sunday, December 31, 2006

The Queen

What a great movie. This is the kind of film that invariably rekindles my love affair with motion pictures.

The story is simple: after the sudden death in a car accident of Lady Diana, who, at that point, wasn't part of the royal family anymore, because she and Prince Charles had already divorced, how were the Windsors affected? How did they react? What did they feel?

At first, as expected, their reaction is of contained shock paired with an alarming efficiency in dealing with the upcoming funeral services.

Then, however, pushed by the reaction of her people and, in no small measure, by her new Prime Minister, Tony Blair, Queen Elizabeth, slowly but surely, begins to realize that the world has changed, and she must adapt to it, or risk see the monarchy succumb to those in the country who see it as obsolete.

And so she gives in, forced at first, but by the end, almost relieved that she has.

The Queen is played masterfully by Helen Mirren, one of my favorite actresses, who should start in earnest to find a place for a little golden statue called Oscar, the last of the many awards she has or will surely win this season for her portrayal.

She is, in one word, superb. She plays the Queen as a fierce and stubborn head of state who believes she's been put in her place by God himself, and therefore cannot and will not lower herself and, by extension, the crown, to worry about the funeral of the very person who labored so hard to undermine what she had built.

Her views are slowly changed by the realization that maybe, just maybe, her opinions of Diana and of her people had been shrouded in a traditional view of the crown and of royalty that wasn't shared by her current countrymen anymore.

In the end, the Queen opens up her armor just a tiny bit, enough to salvage her legacy (and possibly the crown itself) and to show us that she is, after all, a person, raised to be a monarch, and who has done so to the best of her abilities.

The whole cast does a great job, including James Cromwell as her husband, Sylvia Syms as the Queen Mother, Alex Jennings as Prince Charles, and Michael Sheen as Tony Blair.

It was very interesting to see a portrait of the early Prime Minister, who was seemingly adored when he took power and who is widely reviled right now. How right was the Queen in her final exchange with him.

Lady Diana's death was very emotional for me. I can still remember when it happened as if it were yesterday. I obviously didn't know her, but her public persona had done so much good in the world, I felt like her loss was everybody's loss. The movie re-evoked some of those feelings, and that's partly why I liked it so much, but, besides the great acting, the screenplay is very well written and the score is nice too.

But there's more. I, like just about anyone else, disapproved of the way the royal family reacted to Diana's death. This movie put that reaction in perspective, and allowed me to see it from the Queen's point of view, helping me understand how this looked to her in her world, which, understandably, is light years away from where we all live.

All considered, one of the best movies I've seen this year. Don't miss it.

Grade: 9

2 comments:

redtown said...

The film is brilliant in every way, save one.  In reality, the Queen's reaction to Diana's death surely covered a range of ambivalent feelings, and was not just a cold insistence on protocol, as suggested by the film.

Prince Charles tells his mother, "The Diana we knew was very different than the Diana idolized by the public", but this truth is never developed in the film.  I'll mention it here.

While the "people's princess" remains the icon of superficial popular culture, the Royals knew a very different, darker character behind the facades of glamour and pseudo-compassion.

Both Diana and her brother, Charles Spencer, suffered from Borderline Personality Disorder caused by their mother's abandoning them as young children.  A google search reveals that Diana is considered a case study in BPD by mental health professionals.

For Charles Spencer, BPD meant insatiable sexual promiscuity (his wife was divorcing him at the time of Diana's death). For Diana, BPD meant intense insecurity and insatiable need for attention and affection which even the best husband could never fulfill. 

Clinically, it's clear that the Royal family did not cause her "problems". Rather, Diana brought her multiple issues into the marriage, and the Royal family was hapless to deal with them.

Her illness, untreated, sowed the seeds of her fast and unstable lifestyle, and sadly, her tragic fate.

Massimo said...

Wow, I didn't know that she suffered from BDP, which would add more mystery to the whole ordeal.

Most certainly, no one can know the truth unless they lived it personally, as is always the case.

Thanks for the comment!