Language : English
Cast : Helen Mirren (the Queen), Michael Sheen (Tony Blair), James Cromwell (Prince Philip), Sylvia Syms (the Queen Mother), Alex Jennings (Prince Charles)
Producer : Christine Langan, Tracey Seaward and Andy Harries;
Director: Stephen Frears
Writing credits : Peter Morgan
Music : Alexandre Desplat
Release Date : September 30, 2006
Production House : Miramax Films
Running Time : 103 minutes
Rating : PG-13

Reviews

Helen Mirren fresh from her Emmy-award winning role as Elizabeth I in the HBO film returns as Elizabeth the II the present queen. The House of Windsor has been a favourite of the paparazzi but its relevance as a constitutional monarchy declines everyday. With the experience of aces like “The Grifters” and “Dangerous Liaisons” behind him director Stephen Frears brings alive, Peter Morgan’s blend of fact and fiction. Peter Morgan seems to be favouring the biography of heads of states and their confidants scripting as he has two films – The Queen and The Last king of Scotland – out simultaneously.

With the Balmoral and Buckingham as the backdrop the movie deals with the period just preceding and following the graphic death of Diana the princess of Wales in 1997. Ms. Mirren’s portrayal of the queen – a figure interred in ceremony and the tradition of a stiff upper lip is a sight to behold. The movie deals with the not just the royal response to the public grief over the death of Diana but also her interaction with the new Prime Minister Tony Blair. After playing the American President in “The West Wing” the talented Martin Sheen dons the role of Tony Blair – a leader who knows how to work the crowd.

‘The Queen’ is a partly fictionalised mock documentation of the British Royal family with the revered Queen central to them. A glimpse into the struggles and restrictions within the confines of the Royal grounds wherein a political entrepreneur with a charisma of his own seeks to use and be used as the link between a dying monarchy and it’s morbidly curious subjects. A visual of the Queen’s stiff upper lip and Blair’s over –emotionalism one looks for missing happy medium throughout the film. But in a way the movie aptly represents the feel of the early 1990s – a royal family seeking to find its relevance in the modern world and the new labour leader finding his place in the sun.