 Scrutiny of How the Queen Mishandled Lady Di's Death Review created: 05/22/07(updated 06/10/07) 51 of 52 people found this review helpful.
2006 Golden Globe: Best Actress; 2006 Venice Film Festival: Best Actress; 2007 Academy Oscar: Best Actress, Dame Helen Mirren gives the best performance of her life in "The Queen:" an insightful view of the British monarchy & government. Earning 6 Academy Award nominations, the DVD version's loaded with footage of Lady Diana when Princess of Wales.
"The Queen's" a study of events just before & after Diana died. The movie's plot zooms in on the dutiful Queen (Helen Mirren), spiteful Prince Philip (James Cromwell), grief-struck Prince Charles (Alex Jennings), cynical Queen Mother (Sylvia Syms) & newly elected labor Prime Minister, Tony Blair (Michael Sheen). According to script, Prince Philip detests & berates Diana & views the British public's grief over her abrupt death as lunacy. The Queen is portrayed as quietly committed to her crown; but, clueless about how Diana was popular with & cherished by Brits. Prince Charles is portrayed as devastated, bereaved for his & Diana's boys & spot-on the world's grief. Charles begs his mum for a public royal funeral "for the mother of the future King of England."
She denies the nontraditional.
Blair isn't settled in office when word reaches him: under hot paparazzi pursuit, Diana & lover Dodi Al Fayed are killed after their chauffeured Mercedes crashed into a concrete barrier in Paris. Public outcries came as fast, fierce & furious outpourings of shock, disbelief & loss. Just as Lady Di's public service touched most parts of the world, grief over the tragic loss of an extraordinary, beautiful woman & her brave humanitarian work of love. inspired by social convictions became internationally renowned.
Prime Minister Blair consoled the public through media, naming Diana, "The People's Princess." The Royal family was stoically silent; Prince Philip chided public grief & the Queen Mother gloated Diana was an ex-HRH. Keeping with royal tradition, they remained silent. As if causing & seeing death could relieve the young Princes of their grief, Prince Philip took them hunting (stalking) each day at Balmoral's 40,000 acre wildlife retreat. Was stalking with rifles their only grief counseling? The Queen didn't approve.
When the Queen didn't return from Balmoral to Buckingham Palace or fly the palace flag at half-mast, her public approval ratings spiked to a near overthrow of the Monarchy. Most expected their queen to speak to & comfort them through the saddest royal tragedy of our lives. When she didn't, Blair advised her to do otherwise. Mirren's queen is witty, sensitive & lovable. In 1 scene, she weeps alone at Balmoral's riverside. She'd never been hated before after giving her life to the crown.
Scenes:
1: The Picture of Dignity 9: A Quiet Revolution
2: Prime Minister Tony 10: Captive Beauty
3: Diana 11: Serious Mistake
4: Upsetting News 12: A Day of Mourning
5: The People's Princess 13: Shared Grief
6: A Public Funeral 14: The Funeral
7: Modern Man 15: 2 Months Later
8: The Royal Standard 16: End Credits
Digitally mastered DVD, released April 2007: Miramax. Includes 3 bonus features: "The Making of the Queen," Stephen Fears & cast on video & what it was like playing their characters; audio comments by Stephen Frears & Peter Morgan; audio of author of "Majesty," Robert Lacey, royal expert-British historian. Rated PG13. Feature runs 103mins. Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. Spanish Track & Subtitles. Widescreen.
Review ID: 10000000003621225  Thank you for voting. If your vote meets our guidelines, it will be posted within 24 hours. You cannot vote on the helpfulness of a review you wrote. Your request cannot be processed at this time. Please try again later.  The Queen Is Full of Surprises 13 of 17 people found this review helpful.
Before I even discuss "The Queen", I have to say what a wonderful performance by Helen Mirren. She actually becomes Queen Elizabeth II and we believe it is really her in the movie. She really deserved her Oscar.
But now to the surprises in the movie. Although Queen Elizabeth took a beating when Princess Diana died, we learn that it wasn't all caused by the rift between the two women. It is true that the Queen did not like Diana because Diana talked to the press many times about her problems with Charles, her husband. But we learn further that Queen Elizabeth is so wrapped up in the tradition of the monarchy that she feels that she has to remain dignified
and aloof throughout the ordeal, even saying many times that Diana was no longer part of the Royal Family and that the funeral service should be a private Spencer happening.
Other surprises: (1) We see the Queen actually driving an SUV type vehicle over Scotland's backroads. WOW, I could never picture that. (2) We see Charles in a different light in the fact that he was sympathetic to Diana and wanted to do the right thing for her funeral, which was to have a big, lavish, formal celebration of her life. He must not have been completely wrapped up with Camilla. (3) We see the Queen show lots of emotion toward the killing of a magnificent stag while showing little emotion toward Diana. We see her surrounded by dogs that she commands to stay back and they mind her. She must be a true animal lover. (4) We see the Queen's sitting room, bedroom and other rooms in their Scotland quarters (Balmoral), which wasn't that lavish a deal. (5) We see the Queen actually serving a picnic meal without help. (6) And finally, we see a very young Tony Blair (Michael Sheen) trying to deal with a fastidious not-so-old queen, who revels in all of the formalities of her position.
I don't mind giving these parts of the movie away, because I know that you will want to see this movie and visualize it for yourself. It is well worth the experience. More than anything, this movie shows that Royals do have a human side, that they actually do things that ordinary people do and do it without being waited on constantly, and finally that beneath all of that formality there is just a family with problems like ordinary people have.
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