I'm telling you, if Helen Mirren does not get an Oscar nomination and then actually win an Oscar (I think it's just scandalous that she's never gone home with that little gold man) for THE QUEEN, there is no divine justice in this world. She is amazing here portraying Queen Elizabeth II during the days after Princess Diana was killed in a car accident in Paris, letting loose on the world one of current society's least appealing spectacles, the public grief fest. QE2, good WASP that she is, believes that grief is...
...a private thing, and conducted herself accordingly in the days immediately after Diana's death. As we all remember, she was reviled for her reticence. THE QUEEN takes us behind the scenes (I have no idea where the details in the story come from, but they ring true) with QE2 as Tony Blair forms his first government (who remembered that that had happened only shortly before Diana died and launched him into a bigger spotlight?), Diana runs around with her questionable choice of boyfriend, Harrod's heir and Oscar-winning Chariots of Fire producer Dody Fayed (see what I mean? So unfair that Helen M is without one), and Charles, well, mopes.
Then Diana hits the abutment, so to speak, and all heck breaks loose. If you're looking for a movie that disparages the Windsors, this isn't it. Instead it humanizes them, with all their foibles and pettiness, yes, but also their kindness, principles, and sense of historical responsibility. Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown, indeed.
James Cromwell is superb as Prince Philip, who comes across as the least likeable family member; Alex Jennings plays Prince Charles as a man literally caught between traditions and emotions he can't control; and Michael Sheen plays Tony Blair as the sort of celebrity-hound I'm sure he is: he's a "modernizer" but also in awe of the Queen, and it's his respect for her and gradual understanding of her point of view that the audience feels.
One thing that comes through is the Queen's and Prince Charles' real desire to protect William and Harry from the events spiraling around outside the walls of Balmoral; at the time, it seemed creepy that they all stayed holed up on that vast estate (that vast, rocking estate, I might add), but from the perspective of today, one can see that their desire to protect those boys was natural; everything they've done since then reinforces their sincerity.
Another thing one sees from the perspective of today is that the whole Diana whirlwind, from engagement to wedding to rumors to divorce to death, occurred in a world so outside the regular perspective of the Windsors that they were taken by surprise and left quite at loose ends. To her credit, QE2 saw that; it took a while, but she widened her perspective and accepted that things change and with them, so must the sovereign. Because of that, I suspect history will remember her for far longer and for far more important things than the People's Princess, who seems already to have faded from cultural memory, indeed a 'candle in the wind' as Elton John sang at her funeral. Long live the Queen!