Stream it now The Queen 2006

 

Interesting behind-the-scenes look at the royal family after the death of Princess Diana.

8.3/10

A solid film is one which is entertaining to all. A even better film is one which can keep itself entertaining and have a solid story as well. But the best kind of film is one which goes beyond a story and beyond entertainment. It's usually one which won't exactly appeal to everyone's liking, but I've personally grown to like these films. So, how does The Queen go beyond what is expected? And does it really? Yes, yes it does. The Queen is a peculiar film which blends humor, wit, smarts, narrative style, perfect performances, and most of all, an ultimately strange and satisfying coming of age story, into one utterly complete and entertaining package. While not absolutely perfect, The Queen is still as brilliant as one could imagine, and it's sure appealing. It's a film which I could recommend to many people, given that the film isn't too mouthy, too violent, too simplistic, or too stylized to turn people off. It's a really great film, and it really makes me sad that I didn't see this gem in Theaters when it originally released in 2006. It really does make me mad. Very mad. But I've finally seen it, and now, I am very happy to say that I liked it.

The Queen, as one can most likely guess by the title, is about a queen. But not just any queen. This queen happens to be Queen Elizabeth II. The film depicts a fictional account of the immediate events following the death of Diana, Princess Wales, on the date of August 31, 1997. The plot really deals with the different views from different people regarding the death of Diana. The Royal Family sees the death as a rather Private Affair, and not to be treated as a particularly "Royal" death, in contrast with the recently elected Prime Minister Tony Blair, whom attempts to reflect the public wish for an official expression of grief. The story has some solid emotional moments, as well as moments where smart humor is put into it all. In my opinion, the story isn't forgettable, but it's kind of hard to remember too. It's engaging, and rather spellbinding, especially when the characters AREN'T in rooms. Yes, most of the film consists of ether the Queen or Prime Minister is rooms, and it often gets quite boring. Luckily, the film isn't too long. Plus, it's full of good ol' solid surprises.

There are very few films out there which have truly "perfect" performances by at least the leading cast, if not the entire. The Queen just so happens to be one of those films, where Helen Mirren and Michael Sheen give equally as flawless performances. Helen Mirren plays the role of Queen Elizebath II perfectly. I don't think anybody else could have done it quite as good as she did here. Michael Sheen plays Prime Minister Tony Blair, and I must say, his performance is flawless, unique, and unexpectedly rare. I mean, we all see a good performance by Sheen often (expect of course Underworld and the recent Twilight Saga: New Moon), but otherwise, he's every time near perfect. But THIS time, he IS perfect. He's just....endearing. He's wonderful. He's my favorite member of the cast here. He puts the "Michael Sheen Charm" here to impossibly good use, with equally as good results. The supporting cast is made up of several very talented actors and actresses, such as James Cromwell, Helen McCrory, Ale Jennings, and finally, Roger Allam.

Surprisingly enough, The Queen has a stunning original score. It's something we usually don't get out of "these kinds of films". But......we get it here, and that's what matters. The wonderful two sources of this brilliant score are the extremely talented Alexandre Desplat (Scored Julie and Julia as well as Fantastic Mr. Fox) and some music is performed by the equally as talented London Symphony Orchestra. Songs such as "The Queen" and "A New Prime Minister" are memorable, rhythmic, and just downright wonderful. And it comes to no surprise that the album was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Score. Truly magnificent.

Another thing I noticed while watching The Queen was the make-up for Helen Mirren's character. It's incredible, and it adds a lot more personality to the character. If anyone can tell me who did the make-up, then I want to know real bad, for I admired it. There were several other actors which wore make-up, although Helen Mirren is the other memorable one wearing great, glorious amounts of it.


In the end of the day, The Queen is quite a surprise. It's not perfect, but it's a film I would definitely watch again. It's a film which will surely appeal most adults, although I can't really see a wide variety of children, teens, or the such enjoying it. But, I did, and I'm not going to recommend this to any other kids I know, because they will never understand the relevance of it all. It's one of those films that requires thought. And.....I frankly admire that a whole lot. I enjoy films of intellect and intelligence. I'm happy to say that this is certainly one of them. It's just not one of my favorites though. It's not that far ether, though.

Hellen Mirren is the key to this movie without her this movie is nothing but an average drama movie loved it

Stephen Frears accurately depicts the death of Princess Diana and aftermath of how it affected the British Royal Family. Helen Mirren as Queen Elizabeth II plays the role with absolute perfection, no wonder she won the Oscar that year. Mirren plays the queen with a touch of humor; some dramatic gravitas and most importantly, a subtlety that makes her seem all the more believable. The other performances were mostly good as well. Michael Sheen played then Prime Minister Tony Blair pretty well. Overall, The Queen is a brilliant movie, both powerful and moving.

Story: A
Acting: A+
Direction: A
Visuals: A
Overall: A

**** out of 4 stars

Helen Mirren's performance pulls this movie together, in a detailed portrait of how the royal family handles Diana's death.

Stephen Frears takes a realistic approach on the condition of the British monarchy after the death of Princess Diana. The cast performed superbly following a storyline with brilliant timing. But above all, the applause should go to Helen Mirren and Michael Sheen whose turns truly captured the personas of the Queen and the Prime Minister respectively. A film that's painful, intriguing and amazing.

It's nothing like that it tells a very complicated story or a movie that you won't believe your eyes. It's simple but allows you to think of lot of things.
In grief of princess Diana the Royal family,specially queen Elizabeth ,her daughter and husband doesn't seem to be very much moved by it and the QUEEN refuses to contribute to the funeral of queen Diana in a royal manner. And the story is how Tony Blair,the prime minister of that certain era tries to make the queen look at the situation from the point of the view of the people in the country,and unwillingly she looks at it that way without meaning a thing she did but to make herself some respect over the population in Britain. She does everything as the prime minister says without lowering a word of it because she things she doesn't have a choice. In the movie it's not like that she's helpless with the situation but she's being sarcastic all the way.
It's defenitely a great work in being able to show in the movie how the family reacts to the situation of princess Diana's death. They just try not to miss their everyday routine while the whole nation kneel down before the death of the princess. The royal family doesn't take it to a dime. In the real time when this death happened i heard a lot of rumours that the party which is guilty on the death of princess Diana is the royal family. Actually i heard that the queen planned the death of the princess.Lot of things went around the world those days.
Apart from that if you keep a menatality that the queen is actually guilty you might not miss it in this movie. She doesn't care if Diana's dead. The crowd had written over some words in pieces of papers with flowers saying things like "they don't deserve you"...."they have your blood on their hands" and some others. The queen doesn't seemed to be much paniced by the response of the crowd towards her reaction to princess Diana's death. She plays it like an ending story that she'll never think of again. Do what it's necessary to keep the connection between the palace and the people and get rid of the problems. It's a way....i don't know but the movie showed it brilliantly.

Now now.today is 30th of January 2010..i'm writing this one day ..after i wathced the movie. I wanted my sister to watch this too,,and she did..and she tells a different story.

She insists on the fact that the behaviour of the Queen on the situation of a death could be justifiable in the sense if you look at the whole situation on the perspective of the queen,it's a bit of an acute angle but if you for a moment think that way may be you'll find a way to enter the soul of the queen ...actually you'll understand who she really is. She calls off for a private funeral because she thinks it has to be personal and she doesn't manage to understand the circumstances of the people because she's a queen and that was how she grew up. My sister believes that the actions determined by the queen on her own perspective does serve her soul and her way of livinghood. That could be actually right. I was like...."""what the hell???'"""then...oh...may be that's right too.
Then again ,after a whole lot of thinking i came to a conclusion...You can actually look at it..the both ways. If you look at in the acute angle..i mean in the perspective of the queen ,you might feel that it's right..what she did.
But if you look at the grieving crowd first and then at the queen you will be forced to develop the fact that the queen could have paid some authentic attetion upon what people believe on the death of the princess...like how the fellow representatives of the country look at this certain situation. U will feel that a human being could not be so heartless. That's a question between human mentality dealing between every person and the way one believes in a certain thing. You can look at it in different ways. That is where it always leaves an argument. Now i'm kind of both.
But what's actually to consider is whether it's right to stick to your ownself believing in one thing without letting any other suggestions come into you to see whether they look good on the side of everyone. May be the person the queen wanted out of Diana wasn't who the people believed.

Worth seeing simply for the beautiful stag analogy. The Queen gives us a good look into who this woman actually was. Thanks to Mirren's near-flawless performance, and some unexpected wit, The Queen overcomes the lull of its genre and succeeds.

Shortly after the election of Tony Blair (Michael Sheen) to the position of Prime Minister, Princess Diana was killed in a horrific car accident. As the British public clamors for an open memorial for the woman Prime Minister Blair called "The People's Princess", Queen Elizabeth II (Helen Mirren) chooses to keep everything private, taking her grandsons to Balmoral Castle to help them in their time of loss. Without any word from the royal family though, the British people become angered, and are soon close to calling for the dissolution of the crown.

Princess Diana's death was a very tragic event that led to a sense of lost amongst people the world over. It's no secret that Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Di did not get along, especially when considering the fact that Diana was not quiet about her former husband's, Prince Charles, infidelity among other things and was dating a Muslim. Shortly before Diana's death, Tony Blair was elected to the position of Prime Minister, and while things looked somewhat smooth, no one could have expected the hardships he was about to go through in dealing with what became something of a national crisis. Depicting a situation like this isn't an easy task for film, so how did Stephen Frears do with his movie The Queen?

Amazingly! With a script written by Peter Morgan (Frost/ Nixon, The Damned United, The Last King of Scotland, etc.) which is actually the second in something of a series starring Michael Sheen as Tony Blair, The Queen is not only a look at the inner workings of the British government in a time of crisis, but is also a look at the differences between the branches of government and the way they think. Throughout the movie you see that the Queen and the royal family are very old school, choosing to hide emotion and mourn in private rather than display their feelings to the world. They also don't believe that Diana should be mourned on a public level since she no longer was a member of the royal family. Then you have Tony Blair who wants to move the government in a new direction, and can't believe the way the royal family is handling this: with a lack of warmth in their proceedings. You see Blair trying his best to do what he can for a family that, from the outside, doesn't appear to want to do anything for itself. Working off interviews from unnamed sources within the queen's employ and staffers who worked with Blair, Morgan crafts a script that catches the nuances of the inner workings of the government in this type of situation.

To really bring this out, you really need great acting, and in Michael Sheen as Tony Blair and Helen Mirren as Queen Elizabeth II you completely see the struggles, differences, and even similarities between these two figures. As Queen Elizabeth II, Helen Mirren shows you a woman who is strong and solid in her ways but also worries about her position in the history of the monarchy. Mirren's performance is truly the tour de force of the film, but one also can't count out Michael Sheen's portrayal of Prime Minister Blair. You see Blair as a man trying to lead Britain into a new era, and sees things differently with the monarchy, but still holds the monarchy in high regard. As the people start to turn on the monarchy you see him as a man who is, not trying to tell the monarchy what to do, but trying to help the monarchy through a crisis into a better position in the court of public opinion, and Sheen masterfully embodies this.

Never does the movie take a position as to whether the monarchy is good or bad, outdated or what Britain needs at this time. It doesn't examine Princess Diana's life, or who was at fault in her death. A masterful feat for the director, the movie really just examines the monarchy and the British government in this day and age through this crisis. On top of that, the eye for attention to detail is amazing. You see the difference between the settings where the monarch lives and the lower levels of the government reside, and the images of the country side at Balmoral Castle, and the views of the castle interior are breathtaking. Accomplishing this kind of movie in this day and age is a great achievement.

If you're a fan of films dealing with history, or the inner workings of government, particularly the British government I highly recommend this film. With superb acting, directing, and writing this film shows what any film dealing in this nature of material should really be like.

5/5

Helen Mirren pulls out a beautiful performance that actually makes you like The Queen and the monarchy, the cinematography is flawless and the plot is smart and gripping.
No wonder this movie was critically appraised by top critics. If you haven't seen The Queen then you will have to, this is a must see movie of the decade.