The Queen – the real life monarchy should bow to this royal performance as Helen Mirren flawlessly tackles the role of Elizabeth II, Queen of England, in a story about her daily interactions with her newly appointed Prime Minister, Tony Blair (Michael Sheen). While the Queen has run her castle and her people like a tight ship, the way generations have before her, there’s an unexpected glitch in her plan when Princess Diana tragically dies in a car accident. Or as Blair’s character says of the royal family, “They’ve screwed up her [Diana’s] life, now they’ll screw up her death.” Inter-cut with live documentary footage, the movie focuses on the seven days following Diana’s death and funeral and the clear absence of the Royal family. One can’t help but wonder how the real life Queen or Prince Charles feel about this depiction, not to mention how Prince Phillip must feel after watching an amusing and highly charged performance by James Cromwell, continually blasting Diana and sprouting about the castle that it’s all ‘bloody madness!’ The beauty of this tale, brought to us by director Stephen Frears, is the politics behind the politics – the evolution of a stiff regal succumbing to a more modern way of thinking. Or as the Prince Charles character says to his mother when returning Diana’s body home from Paris, “Perhaps you’d like to consider if it’s still an extravagance to see the body of the mother of the future king of England in one of our royal planes.” While the performances are riveting, often comical, and completely seductive, one can’t help but walk away wondering – had the paparazzi not been hounding Diana, perhaps she’d still be here today. Four tiaras
