Queen Elizabeth II (Helen Mirren) must decide the proper Royal response to the national mourning. She initially sides with her tactless hunting-obsessed husband, Prince Philip (James Cromwell), who chooses to publicly ignore it. But her son Prince Charles (Alex Jennings), the divorced husband of Diana, realizes this course is improper. Tony Blair also presses the Queen to attend the funeral and make a respectful televised speech.
How others will see it. Anglophiles applauded hard for this movie, which won a predictable number of Academy Awards. The filmmakers found the right note, presenting the Queen and Tony Blair as completely honorable during a short-term crisis. In the end, their flattering ovations for Princess Diana were the summit of hypocrisy. No doubt the Queen came to dislike her intensely, and Blair presumably considered her pathetic and scandalous. A tragic death transformed her into a focal point for national grief. Politics forced both Blair and the Queen into giving her a funeral fit for a head of state.
How I felt about it. One quarrel I had with The Queen came from its casting. The major characters were played by actors who were younger and better looking than their real-life counterparts. The most extreme example is the Queen Mother, 97 years old in 1997 but played by a 72 year old actress, Sylvia Syms. But the other leads are also younger and cuter. Helen Mirren, 61, while the Queen was 71. James Cromwell, 66, while Prince Philip was 76. Michael Sheen, 37, while Tony Blair was 44.
Another minor annoyance: Prince Charles' two sons, William and Harry, lack even a single speaking line. They were the two Royals most likely to mourn for Princess Diana, and if they are old enough to hunt deer, surely they should have some input into their mother's funeral.
It is also ridiculous that the Queen would be stranded alone in the middle of a river. Surely a security team would be nearby.
One can also complain about Tony Blair's character. Surrounded by advisors cynical about the Royal family, he nonetheless practically falls in love with Her Majesty. Prince Charles, although presented as politically shrewder than the Queen, comes across as an awkward coward fearful of assassination, something that has never remotely happened to any British monarch since Oliver Cromwell had King Charles II beheaded.
It is also suggested that Tony Blair's intervention "saved" the British monarchy. Such an outcome is unthinkable in tradition-minded England. It is also impractical. Think of the loss of tourism.
But it must be granted that the film is easy to watch. This has to do with Stephen Frears' well paced direction, and the film's gossipy nature. We get to be a fly on the wall of the Royal family as it decides how to deal with Princess Diana's funeral. James Cromwell's acerbic, oblivious characterization is entertaining as well.
The film concludes that the Royal family misunderstood and underestimated Princess Diana's significance to the British people. The Royals considered her to be an out of control embarrassment. The public instead regarded her as an endearing, sympathetic, and tragic soap opera character. Diana was too emotionally fragile for the role chosen for her. The shoe fit Cinderella, that is, she was beautiful and well bred, but her soul required an uneventful life out of the spotlight. When the opposite occurred, she wasn't emotionally or intellectually prepared for it.