The Queen (2006)

I finally caught this film on DVD after trying unsuccessfully to see it in the movie theater. And frankly, I wish I had seen it in the theater. What I was really taken away by in this movie wasn't Helen Mirren's Academy Award-winning performance, but by the beautiful cinematography and grand scenic shots of Scotland. It took my breath away to see the rolling green hills and wide skies.

The film is mostly about the way the royal family publicly handled the death of Princess Diana. I had just turned 16 when Diana died, and don't remember most of the media hullabaloo. However, as a former journalist, I now understand how handling a crisis publicly can make or break you. Making the right speeches and sending out the right public relations statements at the right times and in the right places can cast a public official in a very nice light. And as this film delves into, while newly elected Prime Minister Tony Blair was very forthcoming with his grief for the death of the “People's Princess,” the royal family was very far away physically and emotionally from the center of where the public came to mourn: Buckingham Palace in London.

I had trouble relating to the emotions displayed in the film. Mirren portrayed Queen Elizabeth as having a uniquely British emotional disposition. She kept her feelings to herself and held everything inside. She does her duty as Queen and she is strict about following the rules of the monarchy. The only time the Queen cries in the film is when she is alone, stranded in the middle of the hillside when her car breaks down.

Watching the movie was like watching a caricaturization of the real public people involved in the tragedy. Tony Blair as the hero, coming to bring the Queen into the modern ages of public relations. His wife as the wicked and mean anti-monarchist. The Queen's husband and the Queen's mother staunchly asserting the need to follow the rules of the monarchy. Prince Charles as a wimp, trying to buddy up to Tony Blair, so that he won't come off in a bad light. And the Queen, trying to maintain her dignity, yet unable to meet the changing desires of her subjects.

As historical fiction, the film did a good job of setting the scene and showing what these characters might have gone through at the time. It was an interesting way to revisit a historical event nearly a decade later.