The Lioness in Winter: A Film Review of The Queen

What The Queen does is quite remarkable. Before I saw the film, I'd already made up my mind and I was fully prepared to hate it. So I was absolutely amazed that before the quiet, bittersweet conclusion, it had completely won me over. And for a blue-collar, working class type of guy like myself who absolutely despises the idea of royalty, it's a mesmerizing tour de force.

Directed by Stephen Frears and written by Peter Morgan, The Queen takes us to London during the turbulent days of September 1997 when Princess Diana died in a car accident. Because of her outspokenness, her hunger for publicity and her scandalous divorce from Prince Charles, Diana was politely ignored (through gritted teeth) by the Royal Family. From the Queen's point of view, whatever remaining ties Diana had to the monarchy were severed some time ago. Therefore, Queen Elizabeth was adamant in treating the death of "the people's Princess" as a private affair.

And Queen Elizabeth's decision ultimately proves to be a huge miscalculation.

In his previous films (My Beautiful Laundrette, Sammy and Rosie Get Laid, Dangerous Liaisons, and Dirty PrettyThings), Stephen Frears dissected the hypocrisy of upper class society with a mischievous smile. So, of course, I expected The Queen to rip open the soft underbelly of the Royal Family. Instead, to my surprise, it's a fair-minded and compassionate elegy to people facing the hard truth of their own irrelevancy. Uneasy lies the head the wears the crown, especially in the 21st century.

By skillfully integrating real news footage of Princess Diana into his historical drama, Frears clearly shows us that the public outpouring of grief in London was genuine and heartfelt, coupled by a growing anger at the perceived cold indifference of the Royal Family. It adds a sense of urgency to the political chess match being played in secret by Queen Elizabeth and Tony Blair, the newly-elected and sympathetic Prime Minister. Will she change her mind? Will the Queen make the right move? Historians who followed this royal soap opera know the answer. For the rest of us, because The Queen is so compelling, we're eager to see what happens next. In an intelligent, well-directed film full of great performances, Helen Mirren is superb as the Lioness in Winter.

"Sleeping in the streets and pulling out their hair for someone they never knew," Prince Philip growls in exasperation. "And they think we're mad!" And Philip is more perceptive than he realizes, because the obsessive worship of celebrities is a form of madness. I believe Princess Diana understood this, and used it to her advantage. As Queen Elizabeth bitterly observes, Diana always did charitable deeds "when she knew a camera was present." But this madness also fueled the motorcycle-riding paparazzi who pursued Diana's limousine on the last night of her life. To its credit, The Queen leaves us with an unanswered question: did we exchange one group of idols for another?