The trailer for The Queen turned me off, but friends and critics insisted that I watch The Queen. “It is a really great movie,” the said. The first scene already felt much less staged and invented than the dialogue between Tony Blair and Queen Elizabeth featured in the trailer. The film is not great. What it has going for itself is a spectacular performance by Helen Mirren. Her performance single-handedly carries the movie forward and manages to plaster over a great deal of its fundamental flaws. The film focuses on the week after Princess Diana’s death and depicts how Tony Blair, just appointed Prime Minister, helps the Queen fix a public relations disaster that was making the Queen widely unpopular. The film portrays the private conversations of the Royal family. But the Royal family almost certainly did not tell the filmmakers what they, did, said and felt during that week. Hence script feels like a wild speculation of what went on in the minds and hearts of the Queen, her husband, the queen mother and Prince Charles.  The Tony Blair of movie comes across as little puppy rather than a politician with some gravitas that we know from TV. I think people like the film so much because they enjoy seeing the private life and thoughts of the Queen, even if its is largely invented. Most people seem to be able to believe, unlike me, they are watching what the royals truly think and feel.

Postscript Feb 11, 2007: An interview with the director in Slate confirms that my critique of The Queen was right the money.

Hence script feels like a wild speculation of what went on in the minds and hearts of the Queen, her husband, the queen mother and Prince Charles.  The Tony Blair of movie comes across as little puppy rather than a politician with some gravitas that we know from TV. I think people like the film so much because they enjoy seeing the private life and thoughts of the Queen, even if its is largely invented. Most people seem to be able to believe, unlike me, they are watching what the royals truly think and feel.

Postscript Feb 11, 2007: An interview with the director in Slate confirms that my critique of The Queen was right the money.