The Queen

[QuakrBoi]

Ok.....so I've been wanting to see this movie since it first came out in theaters. It was released on DVD today and I finally got to see it. All I have to say is AMAZING! I think Helen Mirren deserves much more than an Academy Award for her performance. She portrayed H.M. The Queen perfectly. Also, it does make you think.......was she really the cold-hearted bitch the whole world thought she was during the whole Diana tragedy? Or did she just have such a hard time dealing with it herself that she chose to keep completely private about it? I highly recommend this movie. It's definately one worth seeing.

 

[Brijan]

I don't think that it was about the queen having a hard time dealing with the death of Diana, so much as it was about her sense of duty. She thought she was doing what was best for her people and her country.

Nevertheless, it was a great movie. Not one I would own, but one I would watch again.

 

[Kismet]

Yes I thought Helen Mirren did an incredible job in this movie. It was interesting to see the other perspective on the tragedy.

 

[slobone]

I thought it was the dullest movie I've seen in a long time, and I hated Helen Mirren's performance. The filmmakers had obviously made up their mind that the Royals were completely stodgy and humorless, even in private (which is not the case from everything I've read). That the Queen is completely emotionally repressed, Prince Philip is a cranky old bore, and Charles is a total wuss. Tony Blair, on the other hand, single-handedly saved the monarchy from itself, in spite of being saddled with a rather nasty and rude wife.

Well, OK, I guess I don't know whether any of that is actually true or not. But it made watching the movie a very depressing experience. I know Stephen Frears and Helen Mirren are capable of much better, so I blame the screenwriter.

 

[slobone]

IBut not an Oscar winning performance for Helen Mirren. Judi Dench should have got it, she's a much better actress. Mirren is a bit too self satisfied - believes her own press too much. Don't like her...

I agree -- Dench, who was just marvelous in Notes on a Scandal. Or possibly Maggie Gyllenhaal, who was terrific in Sherrybaby (and didn't even get a nomination). Penélope Cruz in Volver was also quite good, but not up to the others.

I've loved Helen Mirren in some things -- Prime Suspect in particular -- but I hated her in this. What the fuck was she trying to accomplish?

 

[JesseNYC]

I didnt think I would like it but I did. It was a great movie and it really makes me wonder what it was like on the inside during that time or what Diana was like when no cameras were around.

 

[slobone]

^^^And actually, Diana steals the picture in a short clip from her famous TV interview. The movie could have used a lot more of her type of glamour. Or at least some bitchy humor.

Next time get a gay director to do it!

 

[Stryfe]

I just got the DVD and I think what's great about it is that it's not about the glamor of being the queen, but being unappreciated and misunderstood. But they still did show her stature, albeit symbolically with the stag.

 

[josher]

I'd pay to hear Mirren read the proverbial phonebook. Her acting in Prime Suspect is the best of any woman I can think of in a series of TV movies.

 

[wundersteve]

Did we see the same movie? I thought there was plenty of humour, much of it bitchy....I laughed a great deal. And such a subtle performance. Dench would have won in any other year but Mirren gave a tour de force performance.

 

[sexylad]

I agree, I thought it was a fantastic film... Helen Mirren is a superb actress.

 

[Spensed]

Helen Mirren is a great actress and was excellent in this film. I didn't think the film itself was that good. It was too slow and boring in parts and too melodramatic in other parts. It also only told half the story.

As a matter of common sense, the Queen probably had mixed feelings about Diana like any mother-in-law and, after the divorce, hatred of Diana would have been part of that. So some of what went on would have had to do with wanting to put Diana in her place. The film for the most part ignores that dimension. The Queen's and her courtiers' refusal to fly the flag at half staff over the palace wasn't just about tradition and protocol.

Not in the fim, but it was the same with the royal family's treatment of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, bad as they were. They were put down not just because of tradition and protocal but because the Queen Mother was an unforgiving bitch.

As for the Queen, I think she's an unnecessary contitutional relic and people's feelings for her alway remind me of the romantic devotion my now deceased aunt had for Liberace.