Film

Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007)

Director: Shekhar Kapur

Synopsis

Almost a decade after ‘Elizabeth’, Shekhar Kapur and Cate Blanchett reunite for another slice of Virgin Queen life. HM is now firmly established, enjoying the occasional dally with Raleigh (Clive Owen) and shoring up the Empire against those fanatical Spaniards. Geoffrey Rush reprises his Walsingham; Abbie Cornish and Samantha Morton also appear.

Movie review

From Time Out Chicago

Queen Elizabeth I of England led a very exciting life. She stood up to the might of the Spanish empire and, in a key turning point in history, watched her ships kick the butts of the Spanish Armada. She had a famous flirtation with the roguish adventurer Walter Raleigh, he of the coat over the puddle. She survived an insurrection by Catholic supporters of her rival for the throne, Mary Queen of Scots.

Alas, screenwriters Michael Hirst and William Nicholson and director Kapur (who also helmed Elizabeth in 1998) turn the whole story into a series of climaxes and pageants. Despite strong performances, the film is more exhausting than dramatic.

That’s a shame, because Blanchett, whose first turn as the virgin queen garnered an Oscar nomination, is great fun to watch. With her icy calm concealing roiling emotions, she royally commands attention. When Elizabeth engages in what she knows will be a chaste relationship with Raleigh (the wonderfully seductive Owen), Blanchett captures a tricky mix of girlish giddiness and regal reserve.

More of those small scenes would be wonderful, but instead Kapur gives us God’s-eye camera angles on members of the royal court sweeping through endless hallways, epic-scale battle scenes, cartoonishly evil Spaniards and a wall-to-wall score that hammers every moment of the film into one’s brain. Even for a queen, not every second of life is a parade.