The Queen ****

I went into The Queen with few expectations; I knew it was about the current British royal family, but I knew nothing else about the plot. I also knew that it should be a quality film because it stars the accomplished Helen Mirren as Queen Elizabeth II. But then again, I watched her play the first Queen Elizabeth in HBO's miniseries Elizabeth and was bored, bored, bored. So would Mirren's turn as QE2 rate any better than QE1 did?

Without question, yes.

The film, far from being a sweeping epic about this royal family, covers a mere week in their lives and that of a fresh-faced, smiling new prime minister. There's nothing really special about this particular week ... well, besides the fact that this is the week following Princess Diana's death in a Paris car wreck. The Queen focuses on both the royal family and the new face of British politics, one Tony Blair, as Blair faces his first crisis in office and the Windsors struggle to reconcile their reactions with that of the British public.

This is of course a fictionalized account, so who knows how accurate the private scenes are. However, it proves to be an interesting study of the royals and Blair. Mirren is superb as the monarch who firmly believes in the British stiff upper lip. Michael Sheen's Blair is physically boyish and goofy, but he's quite entertaining as the new PM and interacts well with Mirren. Between their physical similarities to their real-life counterparts and their top-notch performances, you have no problem believing these two are the real deal. Others in the cast are less convincing physically, especially Alex Jennings as Prince Charles. But this rarely becomes a distraction. And the filmmakers made the right choice in not casting anyone for Princess Di; instead, she appears as herself via news footage from the time.

What impressed me most about this film was how most of the characters became three-dimensional and human, even the stoic queen. James Cromwell's Prince Philip is the main exception; he never really rises above being a pompous asshole. Even the Queen Mother comes off as more human than him, and she's used mainly for comic relief. But the film uses the characters and their interplay effectively to draw you into the story. You respect what Blair is trying to accomplish, you admire his wife's willingness to tweak the queen behind her back, and you feel for Queen Elizabeth II as she struggles to relearn the public's relationship with the monarchy. You even feel for Prince Charles as he slowly breaks from his mother's iron grip even as his motivations appear at least partly opportunistic.

The screenplay and direction are truly deserving of their Oscar nominations. There is one sledgehammery moment of symbolism in the film involving a stag that pushes the cheese factor a little too much, but fortunately, that's the only one that's overdone. Otherwise, The Queen is a quiet but entertaining and effective film that humanizes most of the royal family and, while fictional, helps us understand and even sympathize with the leaders of Great Britain.