The Queen

There are plenty of Oscar hopefuls I haven’t seen yet, but if there is a better candidate for Best Picture, then this will be a very good year. Helen Mirren is a likely shoo-in as Best Actress, to get an Oscar for portraying Elizabeth II hard upon winning an Emmy for playing Elizabeth I in the HBO miniseries. Heck, she deserves the award just for the way she walks her dogs. Overall, her performance goes well beyond convincing, to completely empathetic. You know just what the old mum (that’s how ma’am is pronounced, not to rhyme with ham, and be sure you remember that in her presence) is feeling, but more amazingly -- you care. The real surprise, though, is just how good a film director Stephen Frears has mounted around her, based on a canny script by Peter Morgan. Personally I was utterly indifferent to the death of Princess Di back in ’97 -- I figured she just had gone to a better place, where she could date Elvis and double with Marilyn and James Dean. But this film uses the occasion for a continuously interesting, witty, and ultimately moving exploration of monarchy and modernity, politics and media, tradition and family dynamics. Michael Sheen is marvelous as Tony Blair, poignantly contrasting his eager early time in power with his current Iraq-scarred endgame. The rest of the cast is impeccable as well. This intimate recreation of a single critical week in recent British history is convincing and suggestive, well-judged in every respect. Without going into further descriptive detail, I urge you to see it for yourself and let its delightful surprises unfold for you, and its tendrils of implication ramify. (2006, Images, n.) *9* (MC-91.)