Rating of
2.5/4
"Elizabeth" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 04/11/12
Elizabeth chronicles the life of Elizabeth I from innocent young girl to one of the shrewdest and most politically savvy monarchs in England's history. Shekhar Kapur's story of the early life of the virgin queen certainly has a very impressive cast and the material concerns itself with one of the most fascinating periods of British history but the film suffers for his approach. The early part of the film resembles a melodramatic soap opera more than anything else and suffers greatly for his unsophisticated direction that seems far more interested with unnecessary visual embellishment than story telling. Things settle down after Elizabeth is crowned Queen however, and as Geoffrey Rush's Walsingham becomes more involved in the political machinations it all gets a lot more interesting. The performances are all solid and the costumes as attractive as you'd expect but there's something a little "made for TV" about it all. Kapur's direction is the main culprit, but the photography is also not as attractive as it might be making it lack the historically epic sweep I was expecting. It never descends into absurd romantic fantasy in a similar way to its sequel however, and as a whole Elizabeth stands up as a solid if unspectacular historical drama.
