Elizabeth: The Golden Age: Movie Review (2007)

(Originally published 2007)

Directed by Shekhar Kapur, written by William Nicholson and Michael Hirst, 115 minutes, rated PG-13.

Shekkar Kapur's "Elizabeth: The Golden Age" is a movie fit for a drag queen.

The director's follow-up to his excellent 1998 film, "Elizabeth," lives and breathes more for the lavish treatment given to its Academy Award-worthy costume design, set design and makeup than it does for, say, such trivialities as history, which in this film is burned at the stake.

Not that that's a surprise. Given its two-hour running time, history obviously needed to be compressed in an effort to highlight the critical details of a well-known story while also putting on a good show.

That proved true for the first "Elizabeth," which succeeded in mounting a royally good time, but this time out, Kapur only occasionally comes through with a compelling account of what occurred in late 16th century England, when Queen Elizabeth I was faced with losing her country, her crown and likely her head to the Spanish armada.

Worse for the film is that too often screenwriters William Nicholson and Michael Hirst simply rewrite history in an effort to hook the masses with genre convention, usually the sexually smoldering variety.

There are times in this movie when you swear that Harlequin had a hand in it--particularly in a romantic subplot involving Clive Owen as the dashing Sir Walter Raleigh and Abbie Cornish as Bess Throckmorton, Elizabeth's closest lady-in-waiting--yet sitting through the credits disappointingly doesn't reveal that to be the case.

The first film began with the burning of three Protestant “heretics,” and it came alive in its frequent beheadings, its bloody division of two churches (Roman Catholic and Protestant), and the ascension of one tough, indomitable, 25-year-old woman who surfaced in Kapur’s hands as one formidable presence. Blanchett played Elizabeth as a passionate free spirit hardened by her cold blue bloodline, the ruthless machinations of a court in upheaval, and the tremendous rush for power that undermined it all.

This time out, at age 52 (yet oddly looking 20 years younger), Elizabeth is facing the deception of her cousin, Mary Stuart of Scotland (Samantha Morton, here mostly to offer up her neck), as well as the aforementioned armada, which Spain's mincing King Philip II (Jordi Molla) has organized to restore Catholicism to England.

As you would imagine, those plot points, in the right hands, might have made for a rousing movie, and yet here, they're dashed to the sidelines as Kapur focuses instead on the Virgin Queen's lustful longings for Raleigh, which consume her. Is this historically correct? Depends on what history book you're reading, though mine suggests Elizabeth had a wee bit more on her mind than fretting over whether Raleigh fathered Bess' child and what it might mean to England should she enjoy a kiss from him.

So far, "Elizabeth: The Golden Age" is the year's most beautiful-looking film, but as anyone who has spent time with beauty can tell you, it doesn't necessarily lead to any lasting sense of depth or substance. Without question, there are pleasures to be had in simply beholding it--and Blanchett is so gifted an actress, she's never once not watchable--but unlike last year's HBO miniserie's "Elizabeth I," with a stripped-down Helen Mirren playing her age and taking charge in the lead, Kapur's movie falls short in comparison.

With its emphasis on its endless array of costume changes, how properly to light and photograph those costumes, and then how best to showcase Blanchett in them, "Elizabeth: The Golden Age" feels more like "Elizabeth: The Cat Walk."

Grade: C