The Queen
Synopsis: Dame Helen Mirren gives a spellbinding performance in The Queen, the provactive story behind one of the most public tragedies of our time - the sudden death of Princess Diana. In the wake of Diana's death, the very privated and tradition bound Queen Elizabeth II (Mirren) finds herself in conflict with the new Prime Minister, the slickly modern and image conscious tony Blair. The Queen, also starring James Cromwell, takes you inside the private chambers of the Royal Family and the British government for a captivating look at a vulnerable human being in her darkest hour, as a nation grieving for its People's Princess waits to see what its leaders will do. Suspenseful, heartfelt and riveting, it's a fascinating sotry you won't soon forget.
Rating:Rated PG-13 for brief strong language.
Run Time:103 Minutes
Director: Stephen Frears
Dvd Extra's: The Making of the Queen, Audio commentary with Direcotr Stephen Frears and Writer Peter Morgan, Audio Commentray with British Historian Robert Lacey. Languages: English and Spanish, Subtitles: Spanish
Nudity Factor: None.
Of Note: Helen Mirren's performance received a five minute standing ovation at the film's premiere at the Venice Film Festival.
Review by:
Jason James
Rating: 
From a historical stand point I loved this movie. For the most part I don't remember all that much about the events that take place in this film. The film follows what takes place days and weeks after Princess Diana dies in a car crash. Yes there is a lot of conspiracy theorist that have different ideas about what happened. Thankfully this movie does not dwell or linger on those parts very much. I also think it was very classy that they did not cast Princess Diana in this movie but represented her with actual clips. They also left her kids out of it for the most part. The real focus is on The Queen and how she is conflicted between modern thinking the how she was raised. She wants this to be a private matter and that just does not work for the people. Princess Diana herself was way to public and as Tony Blair put it was the Princess of the people. Because of the direction of the story the movie does have a very slow pace. Granted how do you make a fast paced movie about a high profile person without it feeling insensitive to her. But with the slow pacing of the movie I found myself half watching the movie and the other half was spent surfing the net trying to fill in the gaps between the movie and actual history. What I found is that a lot of the speeches were pretty much right on to what was said. Overall I enjoyed this movie for the historical representation but it was hard to stay fully engaged with the slow pacing. I liked being able to learn about the events that took place, because when they happened I really did not fully understand what all the fuss was about. Between the balance of slow pacing and the historical side I really felt that it was worth my time to watch this movie though I was glad that I didn't have a whole lot of money invested.