Buy posters from this movie

Tony Blair (Michael Sheen) has just been voted in as the youngest prime minister in Britain’s history. Among his first duties is to meet with the Queen Mother, Elizabeth II (Helen Mirren) and basically get her blessing to run the government on her behalf. It’s an awkward meeting on both sides. The Queen with her proper mannerisms dating back decades from when she first took the throne is not amused at Blair’s informal, but polite insistence on being addressed by his first name instead of his title. His wife (Helen McCrory) also never misses a chance to mock the monarchal traditions and curtsies as she sees appropriate.

Then the tragic news arrives late one evening of Diana’s car accident (its paparazzi chase is partially recreated here) and reactions are varied within the halls of power. Blair, not as an opportunist but a statesman (as President Clinton did), is first on television in the morning expressing his grief and, thanks to his speechwriter, immortalizes Diana as the “people’s princess.” The Queen’s first responsibility is not for public speeches and easing the mourners who knew her only in name and picture, but to her grandchildren and making sure they are shielded from the reminder that their estranged mother is dead. This doesn’t sit well with the people however as public support begins to drift while the numbers grow as The Royal Family makes no effort beyond keeping the whole event is a private matter.

However this is viewed in the court of public opinion, none is beneficial for the monarchy. On one hand it’s no secret of the animosity The Queen held for Diana, expressed in more than a few television interviews with the Princess. Blair’s assistant suggests he ask mum if she “greased the brakes” herself. If not that, then it’s a stubbornness on a Royal level that makes her come off uncaring and cold. Prince Charles (Alex Jennings) is so fearful that someone may be willing to take a shot at him that he begins deflecting the target towards his mom by not so subtly aligning himself with Blair’s point of view. “What kind of people are these,” shouts Blair, an amusing line that winds up encapsulating more than he realizes as sympathizers leave their flowers stamped with messages implicitly putting Diana’s blood on The Queen’s hands.

Frears and screenwriter Peter Morgan do a masterful job at letting the events play out while our own criticisms are allowed to simmer and settle at each passing day. We see Diana as most of the world saw her, through television and photographs and it’s a brilliant device of implicating the triangle of her, the press and us into how vast her exposure was and how obsessive the camera and numerous eyes were with her. She commanded the spotlight away from the Royals thanks to her “fairy tale” wedding and the light never dimmed since photogenia is more important to our culture than actions. (When was the last missing girl to garner national media attention who didn’t have blonde hair and white skin?) The public creates celebrities and then forget they are human. It becomes a dirty word synonymous with both leeches and the most vacuous tunnels of our culture. The mere thought of such people attending Diana’s funeral raises ire and when we see Hanks, Spielberg and Cruise walking in together it’s troubling to distance ourselves that they may have indeed been touched deeply by this extinguished soul.

The late Princess is acknowledged as a lamb brought before the slaughter through the underlying sport frequently used by Philip (James Cromwell) to divert his grandkids. Hunting - or as its appropriately referred to in England, “stalking” – leads The Queen to a beautiful moment with the great Buck who has been the prime target during the week. Her empathy for the creature, alone in a world that pursues it for their own glory, is a revealing epiphany amidst the chaos of a society that demands all and when their requests are denied wonder how dare they.

Engravers are standing by to fill in the platelet left blank on this year’s Best Actress statuette for Mirren’s strong, almost tortured performance. She’s magnificent especially in the scenes where mum is meant to remain mum and ponder the decisions of a life that she’s convinced has been all for the people. It’s precisely the kind of role that Judi Dench would have hammed and scowled her way through where Mirren’s silence project the precise kind of royalty the crown deserves. Michael Sheen is equally good and frighteningly resembles the Prime Minister trying to find the commonplace with his Queen for a true changing of the guard in government. Much of the film is a love letter to Blair’s grace under pressure, (one shot eerily resembles one of JFK’s famous photos in the Oval Office during the Bay of Pigs), but the awakening that’s in store for him in the final scene with The Queen makes us want to view each step he took a second time with a different light. Frears’ film is often a brilliant comedy of manners laced with the occasionally appalling undertones that we, the people, often embrace. I, for one, will be reexamining that week with multiple viewings of this film and remember that sometimes it takes a spoiled celebrity like Paris Hilton for us to appreciate that Diana didn’t have to do anything meaningful with her spotlight either.

link directly to this review at https://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=15253&reviewer=198
originally posted: 10/13/06 14:12:27
 printer-friendly format