Movie Review: Elizabeth

Elizabeth: Torgo approves

I was struck by the similarities between this movie and The Godfather. Both are about a member of a powerful, violent family who is reluctant to accept his or her destiny. Like Michael Corleone, Princess Elizabeth knows she'll have to sacrifice herself, her love, everything, in order to transform into an effective, controlling leader.

Besides the plot and theme similarities, the filmmakers with both movies chose to show the transformation with similar images, as precisely alike as the random stand-up sex scene (here, it's Joseph Fiennes instead of James Caan) and the official rise to power/bloodbath to take out all enemies climax.

I wanted to see this movie because I heard the sequel is coming out. M-N used to teach this era in history, so she was an excellent resource for my random 16th Century England questions.

All around, this is a great movie. Cate Blanchett is terrific. Geoffrey Rush is terrific. Joseph Fiennes is a little too much of a pretty boy (and it's definitely odd that this came out the same year as Shakespeare in Love, as though Elizabethan pretty boy's are his thing).

The whole production feels complete and exact. I think one of the reasons I didn't see it when it first came out was the poster. It makes Elizabeth look like a maniacal tyrant, sinister, much like her half-sister, Bloody Mary. I wasn't interested in a period piece like that.

But she's much more playful than that. The scene where she passes the Act of Uniformity is just fun to watch, with the young queen flexing her power and literally bouncing around in her seat. I'm looking forward to the second movie (and the possible third -- though that looks to complete the Godfather arc, where she's outlived everyone and dies alone).