. ELIZABETH
A film review by Christopher Null
Copyright 1998 Christopher Null
Seeing ELIZABETH on the day of the impeachment of President Clinton was a bit strange, but it did put things in perspective.
450 years ago, no one would've thought a thing about a little intern boinking. Today, that's obviously big news, and it should have made the sexual, political, and religious escapades of ELIZABETH all the more thrilling.
Too bad it doesn't. The tumultuous tale of young Elizabeth I's (Cate Blanchett) rise to power in the mid 1500's, we are treated to a two hour trip through her battles with the French, a number of suitors, the Pope, the Spanish, underhanded lords, and other nefarious types.
The problem is this all comes off as too cliquish, with Britons the obvious wink-wink insiders in all of this, as is typically the case with movies about roylaty. Despite a rash of good performances, lush camerawork, and great costumes, ELIZABETH is just too stand-offish to really get into.
RATING: ***
|------------------------------|
\ ***** Perfection \
\ **** Good, memorable film \
\ *** Average, hits and misses \
\ ** Sub-par on many levels \
\ * Unquestionably awful \
|------------------------------|
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Shekhar Kapur Producer: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Alison Owen Writer: Michael Hirst Starring: Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush, Christopher Eccleston, Joseph Fiennes, Richard Attenborough
http://www.elizabeth-themovie.com
-Christopher Null / null@sirius.com / Writer-Producer / http://www.filmcritic.com
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