The Queen [DVD]

Stephen Frears' critically acclaimed portrait of the English Monarch in time of strife. One of the most turbulent times in British politics in recent memory seen from an insider's perspective - an almost documentary look at the relationship between the figurehead and the brains behind the UK. It's 1997 and Tony Blair's Labour Government has just won an election, ending 18 years of Conservative rule. Blair the firebrand (Michael Sheen) must introduce himself to the Queen (Helen Mirren) and ask permission to govern the country. The stone-faced Regina, in accepting, gives him not a millimeter of slack, silently underscoring the fact she's in charge. Shortly thereafter, the former Princess of Wales, wife of Elizabeth's son and heir, is killed in Paris. The Queen's initial reaction is to hold ranks and treat Diana as an outsider, being that she has left the royal household. Blair senses the coming landslide of public opinion against this course of action and tries, as hard as a new boy can, to make her majesty see sense. The question of who's truly in charge comes to the fore. AMAZON.CO.UK REVIEW Helen Mirren reigns supreme in The Queen, a witty and ingenious look at a moment that rocked the house of Windsor: the week that followed the sudden death of Princess Diana in 1997. Diana's death came at just the same time that Prime Minister Tony Blair (played by the bright Michael Sheen) was settling into his new government--and trying to figure out the delicate relationship between 10 Downing Street and Queen Elizabeth II (Mirren). A large portion of the British population was trying to figure out the Windsors that week, as Elizabeth remained stiff-upper-lip and largely mum about the death of the beloved princess. In Peter Morgan's skillful script, we watch as Blair grows increasingly impatient with the Royals, who are sequestered in their Scottish estate while the public demands some show of grief. Prince Philip (James Cromwell, in good form) clumsily decides to take Diana's sons hunting, while a sympathetically-treated Prince Charles (Alex Jennings) displays some frustration with his mother's eerie calm. None of this conveys how funny the film is, or how deftly it flows from one scene to the next. Director Stephen Frears (Dirty Pretty Things) deserves great credit for that, and for the performances, and for the movie's marvelous sense of well-roundedness; you could see this movie and groan at the cluelessness of the Royals and their outmoded existence, or you might just sympathise with showing reserve in a world that values gross public displays of emotion. But either way, you'll marvel at Mirren, who makes the Queen far more alert and human than one might ever have imagined. --Robert Horton