By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Shekhar Kapur
Starring: Abbie Cornish | Cate Blanchett | Clive Owen | Geoffrey Rush | Samantha Morton | Tom Hollander
Country: france, united_kingdom
Year: 2007
Running time: 114
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0414055/
Michael says: “Who can resist Cate Blanchett, royal, imperious, hair unbound, clad in armor, riding on a white horse? Apparently not me, as I went to see ELIZABETH: THE GOLDEN AGE on opening weekend. I enjoyed ELIZABETH, one of Blanchett’s early starring role, but I don’t really remember all that much of it. I remember Cate put in a fearless performance. I remember that I enjoyed Geoffrey Rush as Sir Francis Walsingham, the austere assassin in Elizabeth’s service. I remember Blanchett won the Best Actress Chlotrudis Award, and Rush was nominated in the Best Supporting Actor category (the film also
got nods for Best Movie, and Best Cinematography) and I remember director Shekhar Kapur had a bit of a fascination with billowing fabric. Mr. Kapur only directed one film between ELIZABETH and its sequel 10 years later; FOUR FEATHERS, which I did not see.
“While I have enjoyed Ms. Blanchett’s many outstanding performances in the intervening years, I wasn’t really planning to see ELIZABETH: THE GOLDEN AGE on the big screen. Too busy, too many other things to see. But when the opportunity arose, I did stop to think about what was going on in Queen Elizabeth’s reign during the time of this film. I’m not a big history buff, but there are moments in history that I particularly enjoy, and one of those is the story of England’s defeat of the Spanish Armada. Since that is the main plot point of ELIZABETH: THE GOLDEN AGE, I thought, why not? This could be fun.
“It was fun. Lots of fun. It was also incredibly operatic and over-the-top. It featured another bold and entertaining performance from Ms. Blanchett, as well as strong work from Geoffrey Rush, Samantha Morton as Mary, Queen of Scots, Abbie Cornish as Elizabeth Throckmorton (the Queen’s first lady-in-waiting), and Tom Hollander as Sir Amyas Paulet. It also featured the most wooden and unemotional performance I’ve ever seen from Clive Owen as the supposedly dashing rogue, Sir Walter Raleigh. Sure, he looked hot, but where was the actor who put in such a powerful, emotional performance in CHILDREN OF MEN?
“While much of the story played out well, the Catholics, including King Philip of Spain come off fairly poorly. A soap-operaish plot element is introduced fairly early on and reaches a misguided and disappointing conclusion. The last third of the movie goes so far over the top, including an inexplicable scene where a horse jumps off a ship just so we can get a shot of it swimming from below. Fortunately, the billowing fabrics were kept to a minimum. Samantha Morton did have a fabulous execution scene.
3 cats”