The Queen

I watched The Queen this past weekend with Ben, my Dad, and Carol. I liked the movie a lot, Carol seemed mildly interested (but fell asleep), Dad seemed to be interested, but Ben seemed not like it.

The Queen is the story of Queen Elizabeth II during the aftermath of the death of Princess Diana in 1997. The monarchy faced a crisis as the public expected a response or some sort of grief from the Queen concerning Diana's death. When the response did not appear, the nation began to get frustrated with the monarchy as a whole and questioned it's existence. Queen Elizabeth was faced with having to make a public show of grief for a woman that she probably in reality did not have the fondest feelings for to save the monarchy. The Queen had many exchanges with Tony Blair during the crisis. Tony Blair starts off the movie not liking the monarchy and their rigid rules, but ends having respect for the Queen. At the end Queen Elizabeth says prophetically to Tony Blair something along the lines of "The people will turn on you someday too, just as quickly."

I liked this movie a lot. It was interesting to watch a piece of "modern" history unfold that I had actually witnessed (well I wasn't there, but I grieved via TV!). I thought the individual performances by the actors were fantastic, especially Helen Mirren's portrayel of Queen Elizabeth. I also learned about how the monarchy and prime minister work together in England. The whole concept rather baffled me. By the end of the movie, Ben thought the monarchy should be thrown out of England, but I rather liked them:-)

This movie does not have super special affects and lots of action, but it kept me rivited and was a great piece of cinema.