The Queen

The death of Lady Diana, Princess of Wales, in a tragic car crash on August 31, 1997, set in motion a battle of wills between newly elected Prime Minister Tony Blair (Michael Sheen) and The Queen (Helen Mirren). Raised to display a stiff upper lip and never betray feeling or emotion, she stubbornly refused to comment publicly. But a grieving nation needed guidance in one of their darkest hours, and Blair had to convince the reluctant monarch to break protocol -- indeed, none existed for the funeral of an "ex-HRH" -- and host a public memorial service.

Like a fly on the wall of Balmoral Castle, we are treated to the inner machinations of a Royal Family which many of their subjects are growing tired of. A heartbroken Prince Charles (Alex Jennings) is upset by his mother's stoicism; Prince Philip (James Cromwell) is jealous of the world's fascination with his ex-daughter-in-law; and the Queen Mother (Sylvia Syms) sees no need to appease the commoners. (The young Princes are seen only in the background and have no lines, their grief respectfully ignored.)

The elegant and always impressive Helen Mirren gives an unrecognizable and superb performance as a woman shaped by tradition and duty who must, for the first time in her life, look deep inside her heart. Mirren runs a gamut of emotion, some evident merely in the flicker of an eye or a turn of the head. Clearly out of touch with the ideals of a dawning century, Elizabeth II is all at once confused, annoyed and hurt by accusations of insensitivity. For a smart woman, the Queen clearly did not understand the power of public relations, in which pride can undermine stature and empathy can elevate it. But she is at last moved to tears upon reading the handwritten notes left at the gates of Buckingham Palace.

Sheen, meanwhile, expertly conveys Blair's perseverance, belief in modernity, and flair for reading the people’s mood. With a vicious media hovering like vultures, he fights to control the crisis.

Writer Peter Morgan has been careful not to make the film one-sided, and his script is both powerful and fast-paced. The Royal Family, however, is not depicted in the most flattering of ways. Even Cherie Blair describes them as "emotionally retarded", as there seems to be little love between any of them. In this interpretation, Charles is cowardly and intimidated by his mother, Philip is a homophobe concerned only with hunting and the temperature of his tea, and the Queen Mother is sarcastically aloof.

Director Stephen Frears, however, is able to humanize the Royals by showing them in bedclothes with their hair out of place, as well as on picnics in the forest. But despite elegant sets and perfect costuming, the production frequently appears like a second-rate movie-of-the-week, as Frears relies too heavily on grainy news footage, the only time we see the real Diana.

By no means an extraordinary film, it is utterly fascinating and terribly upsetting to relive one of this generation's greatest tragedies. The Windsors, though portrayed by the media at the time as heartless, were merely ignorant. Offering a sympathetic look at a woman who is seemingly unwilling or unable to adapt to change, The Queen is a story of Britons and the monarch who neglected them. Rating: 7 out of 10.