Elizabeth I

CinemaSerf7/10

Jun 12, 2024

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Two films that feature Helen Mirren as the eponymous English queen. I found the first to be the more interesting as it uses her relationship with Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester (Jeremy Irons) as the conduit for turbulent times of her reign when she has to consider a marriage with the Duke of Anjoue (Jérémie Covillault) whilst her cousin Mary, Queen of Scots (Barbara Flynn) was the source of malevolent rumours and plots, and thereafter her nation faced the threat of the Spanish Armada. The second focusses more on her supposed relationship with his adopted son, the Earl of Essex (Hugh Dancy) which gives Mirren much more free rein to break away for the better defined historical chronology of the earlier period of her rule. I am not the biggest fan of Irons finding him a bit of a rent-a-grizzle type of one dimensional actor, but here he works well with Mirren, Patrick Malahide's Walsingham and Ian McDiarmid's slightly mischievous representation of her chief minister Lord Burghley. Toby Jones picks up that latter role as his son and successor in her later government as she now starts to fall for the charms of the fiercely ambitious young Essex. Indulged and pampered, she soon realises that she may well have literally nursed a serpent in her bosom. As with the others, Dancy is well enough cast and is quite convincing as the dazzled young man who starts to seek just a bit too much lustre for himself, but there isn't the same degree of plausible chemistry between him and Mirren, nor do the supporting cast have quite so much input to beef up the storyline made more famous by Bette Davis and Errol Flynn (1939). There is some cinematic licence with the history but the gist is authentic enough and these are two enjoyable, if heavily CGI-enhanced, dramatisations that are well worth a few hours.