The Queen (Blu-ray + DVD-Video)

 

Picture: B+/B-     Sound: B+/B-     Extras: B     Film: B+

 

 

The loss of former Princess Diana is still shrouded in a veil on controversy.  In its extreme, there is the controversy about if she and Dodi Fayed were set up to be killed by MI-5 to be killed since those in British power thought Diana was too much of a “loose cannon” and/or Arab heirs to the throne were “unacceptable” among the list.  Stephen Frears at his best is one of Britain’s best filmmakers when he is not making commercial Hollywood product.  From The Grifters to his many great films about the hidden side of Britain, he is one of the country’s most enduring filmmakers.  The Queen manages to cross the boldness of the former with the long success of the latter.

 

Helen Mirren is stunning in the title role, never drifting into satire (not easy with the endless satires over the decades of the reining monarch) and uncanny in the subtle details of a woman always somewhat alone at the top.  She has had this privileged solitude for decades, than Diana and Dodi die.  This shakes her world in a way she never expected.

 

Philip (an uncompromising performance by James Cromwell) keeps telling her top ignore the situation, be royal and keep the status quo together, but Prime Minster to be Tony Blair (an underrated Michael Sheen) knows better and cannot believe how out of touch the monarchy is with reality, the people, the times and this particular situation.  Implied throughout is that Diana was and is more popular and that without any conspiracy accusations (which the film and Peter Morgan’s amazingly bold script ignores) has the world blaming the monarchy even over the press for her death for reasons the film never go into.

 

Of course, the idea is that they had Diana in their ranks, then when all was over, threw her out with the same disposability and contempt they have for many non-royals.  That is harsh and extreme, going beyond any kind of class division (and those who don’t know this should know there is an active caste system in the U.K. that makes U.S. snobbery look pale by comparison, which the film also does not address; maybe it does not need to in this case) one could conjure.

 

With Diana gone, this become a deep character study of Queen Elizabeth II and though it is brutally honest, it is still a fair assessment and her survival as you read this shows that she has not been in charge for no reason all these years.  It also shows a woman who is wise enough to know that there is still much to learn about the world, especially one that is ever changing.  Mirren hits the nail on the head so accurately that she becomes Elizabeth, with an awards sweep that was just not because voters were royal happy.  It is a performance that will resonate for decades to come as we discover just how remarkable she is here.

 

The 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image looks good shot so well by Director Of Photography Affonso Beato, A.S.C., A.B.C., who manages not to let the many occasions of degraded video images of several types get in the way of the “reality” of what we could call royal space.  His cinematography is clean and crisp, which depth and a naturalistic fell that shows the money on the screen as well as the flatness of non-royal spaces that forwards the narrative and enhances all the great acting.  The anamorphically enhanced DVD-Video version is not bad, but the 480 lines can only capture so much of what works visually here, which is why the Blu-ray is easily the preferred version to watch.

 

The PCM 16/48 5.1 mix on the Blu-ray is better than the Dolby Digital 5.1 mixes on both discs, with better dialogue, nuance and the fine score by Alexandre Desplat.  The Dolby is still clear and clean enough and that is because this has better sound design than expected.  I wish more non-action films sounded this good.

 

Extras are the same on both releases, though the Blu-ray has better navigation.  You get a solid making of featurette and two audio commentary tracks.  Frears and Morgan are on one track that is not bad, while royal expert Robert Lacey actually comes up with a stronger track.  The Queen is one of the best films of 2006 all around and is better than you’d think.  If you have been avoiding it because you were not certain you’d like it, now you know you should catch it as soon as possible.  It is not just “stuffy British filmmaking” by any means, but a brutally bold film that works because of its range, maturity and depth.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo