-Helen Mirren is spectacular as Queen Elizabeth II as is Michael Sheen as newly elected PM Tony Blair. Sheen may not look entirely like Blair but he does a spot on impersonation of his voice. And while it may seem that Sheen is called up to bring all the emotion to the piece while Mirren merely has to act like a cold fish, that isn't entirely true. Mirren has the much harder job of making us care about a character who seems like an emotional vast wasteland, all the feeling in her character is buried much deeper and therefore Mirren has to be much more subtle in her work here.

Director Stephen Frears is, of course, a master. Through a body of many diverse works including "Prick Up Your Ears" (one of my personal favorites), "Dangerous Liasons," "High Fidelity" and "Dirty Pretty Things" over the past 20-odd years, the filmmaker has proved himself to be quite the maverick maven. His two latest films, this one and last year's "Mrs. Henderson Presents," provide us with fascinating insights into older British female characters and yet the two films are remarkably dissimilar.

The problem with "The Queen" lies in one's initiation into the subject matter. Anyone who is in college or younger will be totally stymied by the story here. The film concentrates on the days surrounding Princess Diana's death in a car crash and anyone who wasn't already an adult at that time (especially Americans) wont have the historical knowledge to put this film into context. It's like a story about Elvis dying on the toilet that doesn't show you much more than the fact that he was a rock star. Diana's life and work is presented here in only the briefest of ways (usually using footage from the media coverage she so often received) and therefore anyone who isn't profoundly steeped in the history of 80's British culture might find themselves easily lost in the process of trying to absorb this film. In other words, you don't have to be an expert of the Royal family to understand this film but the more you know, the more it helps.

Sometimes the film can be quite base and two-dimensional. James Cromwell is quite bad as Prince Philip. He takes a poorly written character and turns it into complete caricature. And the young Princes, Harry and William, are only seen peripherally. The boys playing them do not even have speaking parts. Scripter Peter Morgan does this intentionally. While this may come under the guise of "respectfully leaving the children out of it," Morgan hammers home another theme by having the Queen talk about caring for the boys while she really has absolutely no contact with them whatsoever, making her appear hypocritical and dishonest. One finds it hard to believe, no matter how cold Elizabeth II really is, that she has utterly no contact with the young Princes.

Yes Mirren and Sheen do a wonderful job here and that is the main reason to see the film. For those of us who were around in the 80's, and remember the remarkable time of hearing of Princess Diana's death and seeing the reaction of both the media, the people and the seeming non-reaction of the Royal Family, "The Queen" is just like being there all over again. Such is Frears hard work at presenting the story of that week in cohesive detail, that it's hard not to get emotional about it all over again.

Notes:

Scott Rudin is a producer. The wonderful score is by Alexandre Desplat.

Filmed in England and Scotland.

The film won several prizes at Venice where it also recieved a five minute standing ovation after being screened.

Viewed in Austin in October of 2006 at The Paramount Theater as part of the Austin Film Festival

Report Card

Script: B-

Acting: A-

Cinematography\Lighting: A+

Special Effects\Make Up: A+

Music: A+

Final Grade: A-