In an age when the screens are dominated by superheroes and sequels, it is small wonder that a true and celebrated historical figure is welcomed to their fashionable club, which fill the studios coffers like no other. Bizarrely, Elizabeth: The Golden Age finds potential for a movie franchise in history and portrays the legendary virgin queen as a royal superhero of sorts. No, she does not fly or move mountains with her bare hands, but as the film has it, she masterminds the creation of a naval empire and the destruction of another and looks slim, young and alluring at the age of 53. The latter is partly explained by the fact that Elizabeth is played by Cate Blanchett, who reprises the role that made her rightfully famous nine years ago. She is as radiant and regal as ever, but this time around the film is not on par with the high standard that her mere presence and 1998s Elizabeth put forth.
Whereas Elizabeth gave an absorbing account of how a hesitant 25-year-old transformed into a queen, the film circa 2007 is always in danger of toppling over at the weight of its own extravagance. Nine years ago, director Shekhar Kapur conjured a dark rich vision that brought a myriad of awards and accolades to his film. This time around he extends this vision to such an extent that it earns diminishing returns. The sets and the costumes are so obscenely lavish that it seems that the film itself pauses while the pounding score never fails to point out the grandiosity of the project. There are times where we worry how poor Elizabeth/Blanchett will manage to stand up straight rather than pay attention to what she says or does. When we do manage to concentrate on the events unfolding, we cannot help but notice that the plotting is overly straightforward while the dialogue lacks the elegance weve come to associate with ambitious high-brow historical dramas.
Nominally, the film deals with the turbulent years when Elizabeths reign of England was threatened by the Catholic Mary of Scots (Samantha Morton) and her powerful sponsor, King Phillip II of Spain (Jordi Molina), who sends his seemingly invincible Great Armada to conquer England and bring it into the Catholic realm. Apart from the simplistic gambit of painting Catholics as bad and Protestants as good, writers Michael Hirst and William Nicholson have taken significant other liberties with the matters of history and have redressed the story to fit the tired conventions of an action film. Pretty much the whole story is seen as a function of Elizabeths fascination and alleged infatuation with adventurer Sir Walter Raleigh (Clive Owen). True, he did claim the territory Virginia for his queen and named it after her, sort of, and he did bring tobacco back with him. The film, however, paints Raleigh as a central figure in the defeat of the Spanish Armada, swinging from ropes, wielding swords et al, whereas history books tell us he took no part in said event.
With that in mind, it is a bit hard to take the film seriously and matters are not helped by embarrassingly modern mantras such as Im very tired of always being in control. In all fairness, Blanchett is among the few who could negotiate such lines and come out unscathed. She does it here and her performance stands apart and above the shortcomings of the film in which she plays. Owen is as dashing as the script and the director need him to be, but the most interesting scenes involve Mortons Mary, who is adequetely depicted as woman of firm beliefs and of truly regal ilk.
Considering the fact that Queen Elizabeths greatness were to come after the events described in this film, in time we might have a third film about her. While we ponder the possibility, we can only hope that it uses 1998s features inspired knowingness as its blueprint rather than this years perfunctory bombast.
