This film is a compelling portrait of a period of crisis for the British monarchy. However, there are two elements of the film that compel me to rate it at 3, rather than 4 stars. The queen's up-close encounter with a buck is ridiculous. We viewers are to believe that encountering such a creature in the wild forces the queen to reconsider her view of Princess Diana. "You're beautiful", the queen murmurs to the buck, slowly understanding how unique, rare, and, yes - beautiful Diana was herself. This sequence struck me as silly and over-reaching. Second, Tony Blair's wife is portrayed as an exceedingly negative witch. Presenting a living public figure so one-dimensionally is careless filmmaking. Mrs. Blair could not have been pleased with her on-screen counterpart. Helen Mirren is, of course, excellent.
Written 5/26/07
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