Running time: 123 minutes
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Joseph Fiennes, Geoffrey Rush, Christopher Eccleston, Sir John Gielgud
Rating 8 out of 10
In terms of educating the celluloid masses, British cinema has - led by Messrs Merchant and Ivory - been largely responsible for classic literature; historical disciplines left for the most part to Hollywood, notably one Mr S. Spielberg.
But now, the past is coming home - only not like you'd ever have imagined.
For in the hands of Indian director Shekhar Kapur and an eclectic, ensemble cast, the fraught and precarious forging of Elizabethan England is brought vividly to life by telling a story of repressed love, political chicanery and murderous conspiracy.
Imprisoned for her Protestant beliefs on trumped up treason charges, Princess Elizabeth (Cate Blanchett) - daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn - survives to inherit the throne of England when rabidly Catholic half-sister Queen Mary (Kathy Burke) fails to sign the death warrant before herself passing into history.
But the dangers are far from over. Barely disguised French and Spanish threats loom large from north and south, not to mention the courtly machinations of the power-hungry Duke of Norfolk (Christopher Eccleston), and fury of Pope Pius V (John Gielgud), the most powerful man in the world.
And it's through characters, rather than events, that this no-holds-barred portrait of the young QEI unfolds.
Blanchett's curve from fright and despair to resistance and aggression is played with considerable skill, particularly in the face of influential suitors- from childhood sweetheart Robert Dudley (Joseph Fiennes) to the manic Duc D'Anjou (Vincent Cassel), represented by a burgeoning young actor called Eric Cantona - and the superbly calculated villainy of Eccleston's Norfolk.
Perhaps most influential in her early reign though, were chief advisor Sir William Cecil (Richard Attenborough) and close confidant Sir Francis Walsingham (Geoffrey Rush) - both excellent - the latter's talent for espionage credited with beginning the British Secret Service.
And Kapur's major triumph is in diffusing accusations of stunt-casting by weaving these disparate performers into a cohesive unit, and surrounding them with a foreboding, stone-clad society of rigid tradition and fearsome ruthlessness.
He has fun with his foreign ambassadors though - a comic-relief technique which no doubt would be considered xenophobic from a British director - but reins them in just short of complete farce.
Indeed, it is the French prince, not his Envoy, who's painted as the prancing fool (the former Old Trafford hero actually a formidable presence), and likewise, the faintly absurd tone of James Frain's Spanish emissary darkens into Machiavellian scheming as the film lengthens.
In the interests of dramatic art, some defensible liberties have been taken with the passage of time - bringing, among others, Gallic actress Fanny Ardant's sexy and sinister Mary of Guise into the frame - without compromising over allveracity.
Neither cinematic history lecture, nor modern movie dressed in period design, but instead a superbly judged blend of the two - entertainment in its own right, certainly, with a wealth of suggestion and interpretation lurking beneath the surface.
But now, the past is coming home - only not like you'd ever have imagined.
For in the hands of Indian director Shekhar Kapur and an eclectic, ensemble cast, the fraught and precarious forging of Elizabethan England is brought vividly to life by telling a story of repressed love, political chicanery and murderous conspiracy.
Imprisoned for her Protestant beliefs on trumped up treason charges, Princess Elizabeth (Cate Blanchett) - daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn - survives to inherit the throne of England when rabidly Catholic half-sister Queen Mary (Kathy Burke) fails to sign the death warrant before herself passing into history.
But the dangers are far from over. Barely disguised French and Spanish threats loom large from north and south, not to mention the courtly machinations of the power-hungry Duke of Norfolk (Christopher Eccleston), and fury of Pope Pius V (John Gielgud), the most powerful man in the world.
And it's through characters, rather than events, that this no-holds-barred portrait of the young QEI unfolds.
Blanchett's curve from fright and despair to resistance and aggression is played with considerable skill, particularly in the face of influential suitors- from childhood sweetheart Robert Dudley (Joseph Fiennes) to the manic Duc D'Anjou (Vincent Cassel), represented by a burgeoning young actor called Eric Cantona - and the superbly calculated villainy of Eccleston's Norfolk.
Perhaps most influential in her early reign though, were chief advisor Sir William Cecil (Richard Attenborough) and close confidant Sir Francis Walsingham (Geoffrey Rush) - both excellent - the latter's talent for espionage credited with beginning the British Secret Service.
And Kapur's major triumph is in diffusing accusations of stunt-casting by weaving these disparate performers into a cohesive unit, and surrounding them with a foreboding, stone-clad society of rigid tradition and fearsome ruthlessness.
He has fun with his foreign ambassadors though - a comic-relief technique which no doubt would be considered xenophobic from a British director - but reins them in just short of complete farce.
Indeed, it is the French prince, not his Envoy, who's painted as the prancing fool (the former Old Trafford hero actually a formidable presence), and likewise, the faintly absurd tone of James Frain's Spanish emissary darkens into Machiavellian scheming as the film lengthens.
In the interests of dramatic art, some defensible liberties have been taken with the passage of time - bringing, among others, Gallic actress Fanny Ardant's sexy and sinister Mary of Guise into the frame - without compromising over allveracity.
Neither cinematic history lecture, nor modern movie dressed in period design, but instead a superbly judged blend of the two - entertainment in its own right, certainly, with a wealth of suggestion and interpretation lurking beneath the surface.
