ELIZABETH
Reviewed by Harvey Karten, Ph.D. Gramercy Pictures Director: Shekhar Kapur Writer: Michael Hirst Cast: Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush, Christopher Eccleston, Joseph Fiennes, Richard Attenborough, Fanny Ardendt, John Gielgud, Terence Rigbby, et al
Bill Clinton should declare himself to be a virgin. His current problems would be over. The American people would unify behind him and Ken Starr would be defending clients with parking violations while his witch hunters would go back to shuffling papers. This is the implicit counsel given by director Shekhar Kapur in his new film "Elizabeth." It's not that Shekhar's subject, the long-reigning, British monarch knew the American president, either personally or via the news broadcasts. After all she was crowned in 1558 when Native Americans ruled over what became the United States, more concerned with conspiracies fomented by other tribes than by the libidinous cravings of their chiefs. But Elizabeth I, beset by conspiracies from nobles of her own country, the machinations of a gaggle of followers of Mary of Guise, and covetous looks at the sceptered isle from France and Spain eager to take advantage of England's weakness, knew how to solve these difficulties. She cut her long and lovely vermilion locks, donned a short rug, and had her make-up crew paint her face a deep and eerie white. She then re- ascended her throne amid an open-mouthed, transfixed court which appeared to believe her to be the reincarnation of the Virgin Mary. "How many people have worshipped and died for this woman," Elizabeth remarked while gazing at a statue of the Holy Mother before taking this brazen step. The English people united behind her.
"Elizabeth" is the creation of Bombay-based director Shekhar Kapur whose films had been seen only by people of his native India, with the exception of "Bandit Queen'--a messy, melodramatic adventure study of the notorious Robin- Hood-like outlaw Phoolan Devi who emerged from poverty to become a kidnapper, robber and killer. Kapur, reportedly bent on breaking the canons of historical compositions, has in fact put together a colorful but cold, distant, detached and fragmented film which emphasizes a queen's quandary with coup-bent conspirators in much the way that the superior "Mrs. Brown" underscores another sovereign's controversial camaraderie with a commoner.
The story opens some years after the death of King Henry VIII, the fellow whose split with Anne Boleyn was the goriest that history had known, and remained so until this day when even Ed French (David Schwimmer) acknowledges in the movie "Apt Pupil" that he is "in the middle of the messiest divorce since Henry VIII." The termagant Bloody Mary (Kathy Burke) is on the throne, so-called because she tends to order the burning of subjects who are not ardent Catholics like her. In the only scene that indicates that there are indeed people in England who are not of the nobility, three such heretics are kindled: when one apostate gripes that the dying is moving ahead too slowly, a helpful citizen throws another bale of hay into the flames.
After Mary dies of cancer, unable to convince her half- sister Elizabeth (Cate Blanchett) to pledge to Catholicism and yet unwilling to order her execution for treason, the film vaults hither and fro from conventional court-sponsored cotillions to scenes of political machinations and assassinations. The balls feature strange dances involving clapping hands, bouncing feet, and women lifted into the air in a truncated interpretation of 1950's rock-and-roll frolics. The intrigues are of both romantic and combative skullduggery. In the former sense, handsome Sir Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester (Joseph Fiennes) proves that the term The Virgin Queen, when applied to Elizabeth is as accurate as Bill Clinton's claim that he never had sex with Monica Lewinsky. Elizabeth is pursued as well by the asinine Duc d'Anjou (Vincent Cassel), whose idea of courtship upon meeting the queen is to whisper pornographic suggestions into her ear as a more fun thing to do than kissing her hand and who believes he is impressing Her Majesty by wearing a dress. The intrigues are handled by Elizabeth's lifelong, trusted confidant, the 007 of the era, Sir Francis Walsingham (Geoffrey Rush). Walsingham thinks nothing of bedding his employer's leading female opponent, Mary of Guise, and making war, not love, when the lights are down low.
The fate of her country changed dramatically when Elizabeth shed her girl-next-door image to become a thundering feminist. Like America's current chief executive, she abhors the view of her advisers that the leader's body and person are no longer her own property--that they belong to the state. Nor does she pay heed to her counselors to marry. Michael Hirst's screenplay focuses on the early years of Elizabeth's rule and underscoring the conspiracies bedeviling the court with all of that subject's contemporary resonance. But Shekhar Kapur misses the opportunity to provide a more intimate, fleshed out production with which his audience could connect. Cate Blanchett has a singular appearance which is exploited well, particularly in the stagy finale when she emerges as quite the likeness of Elizabeth I. The Australian actress, who turned in an appealing performance as the edgier, craftier, more passionate misfit in Gillian Armstrong's "Oscar and Lucinda," comes across as oddly bland this time around, resembling only slightly the more regal posture of Judi Dench in last year's more absorbing story, "Mrs. Brown." Geoffrey Rush, positively amazing as the over-the-edge pianist David Helfgott in Scott Hicks's "Shine," is wasted here, going through the motions of protecting the queen with a dour face and no sign of the fervor that drives him to live out his chosen career as he does. Perhaps most unfortunate of all, "Elizabeth" appears claustrophobic, giving few signs that a civilization exists beyond the palace walls. Contrary to Mr. Kapur's ardent mission, the film comes across as a didactic history lesson.
Rated R. Running Time: 124 minutes.(C) 1998 Harvey Karten
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