The Queen

Rated: PG-13

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Starring: Helen Mirren, Michael Sheen, James Cromwell

Director: Stephen Frears

Run time: 1 hour, 37 minutes

2.5 out of 4 stars

“The Queen” is a movie so tailor-made for Oscars that it’s no shock critics are already hailing it as a masterpiece. They have praised Helen Mirren’s wonderful performance, the films superb direction and the brilliant way the script juggles the two viewpoints of public officials during a national tragedy.

What these reviews fail to acknowledge is “The Queen” is a dreadfully boring film, a “Dateline”-esque biopic that easily could have made an entertaining TV special. As a film, the pacing is deathly slow, and it left audience members checking their watches to see how much longer the film would last.

The film, which takes place in 1997, opens with Queen Elizabeth II (Helen Mirren) inducting newly elected Prime Minister Tony Blair (Michael Sheen). The film then shifts to the night when Princess Diana died in a car crash, and chronicles the six days following the accident. Blair’s opinion is that this should be a public display of mourning, but the Queen thinks it is a private family matter, and her public image suffers. The film juggles the two viewpoints as Blair becomes more frantic, and the Queen begins to wonder what is best for her people.

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Before delving into why this film is so lackluster, first we must consider Helen Mirren. An actress who shines in every film she is in, she has finally given a performance that could earn her an Oscar. In the film, she plays a fiercely determined and stoic character, in contrast to Sheen’s Blair, who is frantic to maintain a good image as the new Prime Minister. The supporting cast is also great, but no one can match Mirren.

Stephen Frears is a director who knows about struggles among British classes and peoples, since his previous films also dealt with the subject. Working from a script by Peter Morgan, the film consists mostly of scenes of people talking and gives the audience a fly-on-the-wall perspective of the British monarchy. The script is based on actual transcripts and the writer’s imagination, and it’s interesting to see exactly how these characters interact with one another as the film progresses.

However, all this filmmaking technique can’t cover up what a dry, dull and bland film this is. The characters shuffle through the scenes, their voices hushed and proper, saying the same things and doing the same gestures to all the royals, and it just becomes grating after 97 minutes.

The film feels like it was padded to fit its runtime, and it doesn’t quite gel. The viewpoints it switches between make a valiant attempt to liven things up, but it still fails to create compelling characters and situations that keep the audience interested.

“The Queen” will probably win a few Oscars for character performances, but in terms of the year’s best films, this one doesn’t even come close. By a long shot, “The Queen” is the most overrated film so far this year.