Elizabeth: The Golden Age

Several months ago — at the end of my last film hiatus — I went through a whole Elizabeth I phase… watching all the movies, reading bodice rippers and actual scholarship, ya know. So with some investment in the real figure and my own romantic notions about her, this unbelievably anti-fact account bothers me more than in most historical films. I mean… getting a Scottish actress with, like, a real Scottish accent to play Mary of Scots… Samantha Morton is great and all, but crack open a high school textbook and one might realize Mary was French in all but name.

So accept the historical inaccuracies from the start and you’re still left with a mixed bag. Kapur’s virtuoso camera tricks work sometimes (the 360s around Elizabeth’s chambers were cool) and very definitely not other times (why the hell am I staring down through this crack in the ceiling??). The score is atrocious, the worst example I have seen recently of an overbearing score cueing the gamut of emotional responses, from swoony romance to spy-thriller intrigue when the substance of the movie can’t inspire such reactions itself. The dialogue, for the most part, is corny as hell and tries too hard to sound period; people make bold declarations everywhere, in the absence of real characterization. In some places — when the bad dialogue, bombastic score and ridiculous visuals come together — the film becomes laughable, and half my audience agreed.

And yet, if one goes in wanting a period soap opera and Errol Flynn-esque swashbuckler, the film is very enjoyable and possibly even satisfying. Pervert that I am, I could not possibly have been more thrilled by the erotically charged relationship between Elizabeth and her “favorite,” Bess Throckmorton; their interaction is much more compelling than the one Clive Owen’s Raleigh shares with either. Blanchett, Rush and Owen all do very good work despite the material, although (perhaps because the past few years have been Elizabeth Overload; perhaps Mirren is now definitive in my mind) some of the Holy Fury moments and playful girly moments were clearly Mirren Lite for me.

Sooo… recommended only for fans of the talent and Elizabeth obsessives, not for the general fall-movie crowd.