Reviewed by Neil Davey
Stars Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush, Samantha Morton, Clive Owen,
Abbie Cornish, Rhys Ifans, John Shrapnel, Susan Lynch,
Penelope McGhie, Eddie Redmayne, Stuart McLoughlin
Written by William Nicholson & Michael Hirst
UK certification 12| UK RRP £19.99
DVD Region 2 | Runtime 114minutes
Directed by Shekhar Kapur
Nine years ago, Cate Blanchett swept to an Oscar nomination in Shekhar Kapur’s impressive Elizabeth. It was one of seven nominations for this excellent film. This year, Cate Blanchett was again nominated for Best Actress (she lost to Marion Cotillard). But aside from the wonderful Blanchett, there’s bugger all else to recommend this strange mish-mash of a film.
Maybe that’s a little harsh. The other performances are excellent. Admittedly Clive Owen’s Walter Raleigh comes across as less the discoverer of the potato as the 16th Century’s answer to Indiana Jones (stand by for Walter Raleigh action figures in the shops. Maybe), but Geoffrey Rush is as good as ever, Samantha Morton makes an excellent Mary Stuart and Rhys Ifans, as a sinister Catholic fundamentalist, proves he can act. The parallels between Elizabeth’s biggest dilemma — the growing strength of Spain and their desire to remove the ‘heretic’ Queen of England from the throne — and today’s war on terror is obvious. Painfully so, thanks to Kapur’s disappointing direction, which replaces the first film’s nuance and subtlety with the cinematic equivalent of a trowel.
There is some fine observation present, in the shape of Elizabeth’s love for Raleigh and her need to choose between life as a woman or life as a queen. That part of the story is stunning, ditto the build-up of the Catholic presence, led by Rhys Ifans as Robert Reston, a devout English Catholic working to remove the Queen. Ifans is magnetic and terrifying ... and then Kapur appears to leave the resolution of that subplot on the cutting room floor, in favour of shots of Sir Walter Raleigh diving off blazing boats and being an all-round movie hero. Thanks to Blanchett et al, Elizabeth is very watchable but it’s to little overall effect.
EXTRAS *** A commentary from director Shekhar Kapur, almost 10 minutes worth of deleted scenes, a making of called The Reign Continues, and three featurettes: Inside Elizabeth's World (which, strangely, is "sponsored" by a car company), Creating The Armada (a look at the CGI tricks used to created the terrific sea battles) and Towers, Courts and Cathedrals.