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"Elizabeth: The Golden Age" is a follow-up less golden than its 1998 predecessor. Without the pleasure of watching Cate Blanchett continue the role that launched her to stardom, there would be little to recommend this latest of many cinematic and television accounts of the celebrated monarch's life, which is melodramatic, narrowly concerned with portraying her human vulnerabilities, and, thanks to a constantly pounding musical score, bombastic. Commercial prospects look OK but less promising than what a first-rate film of this nature would command.
Shekhar Kapur's look at the regent's earlier years enjoyed the considerable benefit of the discovery of a new face staking her claim as a great actress, as well as of a fresh supporting cast and youthful energy all around.
This time, there is a nagging feeling of everything having been given slightly short shrift, beginning with the script. By putting Elizabeth's unpursuable attraction to Walter Raleigh, and the feelings of frustration and frailty that go with it, at the core, the queen is strangely diminished and made more common, not more human.
Scenarists William Nicholson and Michael Hirst, the latter of whom penned the first film, have also failed to supply the juicy wit and linguistic elegance expected in the best period fare, leaving one with relatively standard-issue political plotting, black-and-white contrasting of Catholics as bad guys and Protestants as good guys, and a reductive reading of history.
All things considered, the present Queen Elizabeth has much more to be happy about where her contemporary screen depiction is concerned than would the first.
Story is taken up in 1585, the 27th year of Elizabeth's reign, when -- as the script avoids noting -- the Virgin Queen of legend was 52 years old. Blanchett looks a good two decades short of this, decidedly of child-bearing age and as alluring as any of her ladies-in-waiting, all in the interest of promoting a possible romance with the raffish, dashing Walter Raleigh (Clive Owen), who entrances her with tales of his expedition to the New World, where he has named Virginia after her, and to request backing for his return to create an English settlement there.
Raleigh's presence distracts her, but causing the queen genuine preoccupation are the Catholic threats posed by her cousin Mary Stuart (Samantha Morton), under castle arrest in Scotland, and by her former brother-in-law, King Philip II of Spain (a mincing Jordi Molla), who's chopping down half his country's trees to build a mighty armada with which to invade Britain.
Tale's underbrush is littered by annoyingly anonymous Catholic traitors, backed by Mary and Philip, plotting to murder Elizabeth, who is increasingly taken with Raleigh. The two ride together in the country and achieve what, for the queen, must sadly pass for intimacy, a state more completely achieved between Raleigh and Elizabeth's favorite young companion, the beautiful Bess (Abbie Cornish); when the latter becomes pregnant, Elizabeth banishes them both for a while.
Vibrant, intelligent and intellectually curious, this Elizabeth is also prone to anguished insecurity. In embarrassing exchanges, she goes so far as to utter the modernism, "I'm very tired of always being in control," and, later on, to ask Raleigh, "In another world, could you have loved me?" before essentially begging him to kiss her. The queen is also quite taken with astrology, and regularly demands of her resident expert (an amusing David Threlfall) more specific reassurances about the outcomes of events than he is able to provide.
In due course, the assassins are thwarted, Mary is beheaded (to Elizabeth's great consternation) and the Spanish are on the verge of sailing down the Thames. With this, defenses are deployed and the CGI crew takes over the picture until the marauders are routed, with Raleigh doing an impressive bit of underwater swimming in the bargain.
Overall, pic takes a small-minded view of history and, in its rush to proceed from one tumultuous event to the next, lacks any sense of occasion relative to the significant pageant it attempts to depict. There's no view of Elizabeth other than that she was a human being, too, but that is hardly enough.
The saving grace is Blanchett, who is always striking to watch even when her character is doing and saying things you don't believe, and not doing things you'd like her to do. Her Elizabeth is so indisputably flesh-and-blood that no further point need be made of it. Most of her best moments come early on when she is holding court and dealing in different ways with assorted courtiers -- dismissively, with formality-breaking down-to-earth remarks, or with judiciously expressed interest.
Hair tousled and torso accoutered in roguish style, Owen's Walter Raleigh would have been right at home in a '30s or '40s Hollywood adventure picture. Geoffrey Rush returns from the original as Elizabeth's closest adviser, Sir Francis Walsingham; Cornish is perfectly comely as the court hottie; while Morton has a terrific moment when, after nervously awaiting news of Elizabeth's assassination, her hopeful expectations turn to emotional obliteration upon learning her cousin has survived and she herself is now under arrest for treason -- you can feel the breath of life go right out of her.
Production values most excel in the costume, makeup and hair departments, and least excel in the musical score, which almost never takes a break and bludgeons the ears in the worst modern manner.
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By Roger Ebert
"Elizabeth, the Golden Age" is weighed down by its splendor. There are scenes where the costumes are so sumptuous, the sets so vast, the music so insistent, that we lose sight of the humans behind the dazzle of the production. Unlike "Elizabeth" (1998) by the same director, Shekhar Kapur, this film rides low in the water, its cargo of opulence too much to carry.
That's despite the return of the remarkable Cate Blanchett in the title role. Who else would be so tall, regal, assured and convincing that these surroundings would not diminish her? We believe she is a queen. We simply cannot care enough about this queen. That Blanchett could appear in the same Toronto Film Festival playing Elizabeth and Bob Dylan, both splendidly, is a wonder of acting. But the film's screenplay, by Michael Hirst and William Nicholson, places her in the center of history that is baldly simplified, shamelessly altered, and pumped up with romance and action.
We see her kingdom threatened by two Catholics, Mary, Queen of Scots (Samantha Morton) who stood next in line to the throne, and Philip II of Spain (Jordi Molla), who was building a great armada to invade England. Elizabeth's treasury is depleted, her resources strained, her attention diverted by the arrival in her court of the dashing Sir Walter Raleigh (Clive Owen). He has just returned from the New Land with two gifts: the territory of Virginia, which he has named after her in honor of her virginity, and tobacco, which she smokes with great delight. Elizabeth was indeed by all accounts a virgin, but in 1585, when the story is set, she would have been over 50 and her virginity more or less settled. The film sidesteps the age issue by making her look young, sensuous and fragrant, and yearning for a man such as Raleigh.
This Sir Walter, he is a paragon. He would have been 32 in 1585. Despite his shabby attire and rough-hewn manners, he uses brash confidence to rise in Elizabeth's esteem and becomes her trusted adviser and a mastermind of the British military strategy. The film deals with the famous 1588 defeat of the Armada with Raleigh at its center, commanding ships to be set afire and aimed to ram the Spanish vessels. He swings from ropes, brandishes his sword, saves himself by plunging into the sea, and in general proves himself a master swashbuckler, especially since history teaches us that the real Raleigh was ashore the whole time and played no role in the battles.
In the court, he is also a swordsman, seducing and impregnating Elizabeth's favorite lady-in-waiting, Elizabeth Throckmorton (Abbie Cornish). When Elizabeth hears this news, Blanchett rises to full fury in an awesome example of regal jealousy. She desired Raleigh for herself, of course, although there is no evidence that, in life, she had such feelings for him.
Some of the film's best scenes involve Mary, played by Samantha Morton as a heroic and devout woman who goes to the executioner's ax with dismay but royal composure. Elizabeth's own crisis of conscience over Mary's death is also well played, but the film is far more interested in romantic intrigue and sea battles. I think it undervalues the ability of audiences to get involved in true historical drama, instead of recycled action cliches.
The costumes and settings are nearly overwhelming. Reviewing the earlier film, I suggested that Shekhar Kapur was perhaps influenced by the rich colors and tapestries of his native India. Here he seems carried away by them. There are scenes where the elaborate lace on Elizabeth's costume is so detailed and flawless that we don't think about the character, we wonder how long Blanchett must have had to stand there while holding the pose and not ruffling anything.
Can there be a third Elizabeth film? Of course there can. She lived until 1603, and some of her greatest glories were ahead of her. Shakespeare was active in London from the 1580s, although it was with Elizabeth's successor, James I, that his company enjoyed its great royal favor. No matter. With the same cavalier attitude to history as this second film, we could be talking about "Elizabeth and Shakespeare in Love."
07:49PM TH
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