Such a frustrating disappointment

From my favorite movies..

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

I've watched The Queen 3 times and I'm not even a fan of "royalty". Helen Mirren's acting is so incredible in this film. Saying everything without a word. Whether you like royalty or not, this film is deeply nuanced with layers of different people's truths. The story line follows Tony Blair's involvement with Queen Elizabeth immediately following Princess Diana's death. Their relationship is very sweet. Two worlds colliding, the past with the now. I could feel the burden Queen Elizabeth carried, as she became queen at a very young age and gave her whole life to service and restraint. Because of this restraint, the public never really knew what goes on behind closed doors. The public never knew the Diana the royal family knew. It is sacrilege to say anything negative about Diana, but she had to go through her growing and healing pains, married off at 18 into a world wholly unprepared and still carrying skeletons of her childhood. The queen and Prince Charles were ill equipped to help her. There is no "good guy" or "bad guy" in this film. Just characters being true to what shaped them. And masterfully shows that change can happen through relationship with one another. Lovely film that I'll likely watch a 4th time.

During a particularly terrible tragedy, the Queen was forced to react in the public eye. This is a story of how she was forced to take steps unprecedented for the royal family, in the wake of Diana's death. Her strength was forced upon her, unable to grieve for Diana was no longer a member of her family in a way befitting of someone in the royal family. After watching this movie, I found myself transported into the mindset of the Queen. What she came from, in a world where she had gone through so much change, so many rules had to be rewritten and she struggled to cope. With the help from newly elected PM, Tony Blair, she battled through the change to keep her family safe. One of the last lines in the movie hit me hard, "I've never been hated before." You can't keep everyone happy, and you can't be seen to be weak. I don't know how she does it, every movie I see, every book I read, I am more and more enthralled by this woman's determination to make her countries, and her responsibilities safe and functioning.

This movie gives us a look at what things might have been like at the time when Lady Di was killed in a car accident in Paris. Helen Mirren gives an excellent portrayal of Queen Elizabeth. She is so convincing as the queen that one soon is able to easily suspend any disbelief that she is NOT the queen. Helen Mirren--whom I have enjoyed since her Shakespeare work in the late 60s early 70s---won a well-deserved Best Actress Oscar for this role.Another 'dead on' performance is that of Michael Sheen as Tony Blair. The movie starts with the moment when Blair first had his first awkward audience with the queen. It then skips forward to the time when Diana was killed. As the royal family vacations in Scotland, Blair's problem is how to convince the queen that she must return to London to acknowledge the grief of the people and finally have a large public funeral rather than a small private one. This is a case of the royal family not knowing HOW to react under such unusual circumstances. Blair, plus public sentiment, helps her to realize what should be done.

This rating is probably a little more generous than the film truly deserves, which is a shame since it comes from director Stephen Frears (of The Hit and High Fidelity among many other notables), and of course carries a serious pedigree with not only Helen Mirren but James Cromwell and, the one given the most character to play with Michael Sheen as Tony Blair. They all are in service of a story which is not really that interesting, or as captivating as it thinks it is.Of course the death of Princess Diana rocked the world with grief - or many parts of it, I can't speak for all if it, I just knew what I saw as a kid on TV at the time - and the whole narrative thrust of this film, which mostly takes place in a week's time give or take a day, is 'What will the Queen DO to respond to this national tragedy?' We're told a lot of things about how the Monarchy usually acts, and especially in this case it was tricky since it was the "English" way was to keep grief as a "personal" matter (of quiet desperation, Pink Floyd might say, but I'd say more like upper-crust, stuffy reserve is more like it). And, also of course, Diana's life was made anything but impersonal by the media.I think that how much you personally care about the Monarchy, what you think of its relevance for modern society (as in the past 25/30 years) matters watching The Queen because they are the chief component of it. And from what Frears and company show here, they were very sympathetic; what is it they DO that would keep them away from the (arguably) over-reaching frenzy of the public in their reaction to the Diana tragedy? Well, lots of hunting and walking the dogs and reading newspapers and tea time and other such things. For me, it doesn't exactly make them, or the Queen, seem very conflicted, and that's the problem with the movie.I actually would have been intrigued to see a Tony Blair movie, just about him, from seeing his work here: Sheen does an excellent job, as does the writing of him, to make Blair much more conflicted and have to deal with he pressures of public perception (and also the fact that he becomes sort of a glowing figurehead with his "People's Princess" remark). But his story is squeezed together with this supposed conflict of the Queens, which doesn't make for a terribly compelling arc. For most of the movie she is reluctant/hesitant/won't be in public to mourn, then she sees a giant elk, sheds a tear, and decides to do it. While she starts in one place and ends in another, and does have lots of conversations (like with the "Queen Mother", even more of an old-time blue-blood than she), there's too much telling and not enough showing of the change.Mirren is it goes without saying a tremendous talent, and I understand why the old-stuffy AMPAS gave a figure who was old-stuffy like Queen an Oscar (ironically they didn't give it to the most deserved that year Judy Dench for Notes on a Scandal, I imagine because they might've reasoned she already got hers... for playing Queen Elizabeth for 8 minutes in Shakespeare in Love). But it's not a character that gives the actress too much to do - or, rather, she has to do a *lot* to try and make her at least watchable and have these internal problems to deal with. Maybe they do show up and my own lack of concern for the monarchy showed, but it's also worth as a criticism to point out the movie didn't do enough to make me care as I should.Perhaps as a longer series this could work better, where we could see Blair and the Queen as (co) protagonists dealing with British affairs in their time (there's a hint about the troubles Blair would come across in the early 2000's as part of the Iraq war effort, at least that's how I read into it). As it stands it's not bad, but it's not terribly memorable either, except as Oscar-baiting regal drama with the occasional wink and nod to the audience about how stuffy this group is. From Frears, I would've expected more though.