Cast: Helen Mirren, Michael Sheen, James Cromwell

There is a lot to like in this film — from the uniformly wonderful acting to the acutely observed dynamics of celebrity and the sharply delineated characters. The film takes place in the tumultuous week following Princess Diana’s death. It was a frenzied seven days when the monarchy was perceived as being cold and unfeeling and the newly elected Prime Minister Tony Blair’s popularity soared through the roof.

The film is intelligently irreverent. The title card, with its lines from Shakespeare’s Henry IV, “Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown”, sets the tone. The head that wears the crown is uneasy not because there are ruthlessly ambitious siblings or barons or knights who want to snatch it away, but because after ruling for fifty years, Queen Elizabeth seems disconnected from her subjects.

While the Queen believes the death of Diana is a private matter (“She is no longer HRH”), her subjects think otherwise, and there is a public outpouring of grief, the kind of which has never been seen before.

While the Queen and family go off to the castle at Balmoral, Tony Blair judges the mood of the people and makes a speech branding the iconic ‘People’s Princess’ on the collective unconscious. While the movie is a rich character study, there is an elegant use of symbolism, which places it firmly on the side of minimalism. The Queen’s two encounters with the regal stag are achingly poignant.

Coming to the cast, Helen Mirren richly deserves the Academy Award for her portrayal as a frosty monarch and also a vulnerable woman who just wants to do the right thing. There is James Cromwell as the stuffy Prince Philip, who says priceless lines like “A chorus line of soap stars and homosexuals”, describing the guest list for the funeral. Michael Sheen plays Tony Blair as an eager beaver who also wants to do the right thing for almost right reasons. Sylvia Sims plays a totally out-of-it Queen Mother and Alex Jennings plays a dodgy Prince Charles.

There is prescience when the Queen tells Blair that just as the public opened their hearts to him, they are equally capable of shutting him out. The film, while talking about events that happened ten years ago, feels current as the intrusiveness of celebrity and the shallowness of emotion is now riding an ever-swelling wave of public opinion.

MINI ANTHIKAD-CHHIBBER

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