Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007)
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush, Clive Owen, Abbie Cornish
Director: Shekhar Kapur
Screenplay: William Nicholson, Michael Hirst
Running Time: 114 minutes
PIC proves that having the same creative team to duplicate the winning formula of a previous instalment on the same subject matter, is not always going to be successful.
Set almost 30 years after 1998’s Elizabeth, Elizabeth: The Golden Age doesn’t so much strike with an rapier, but more like a butter knife – a blunt one at that.
It is 1885 and English Catholics are trying to undermine Elizabeth’s reign with the overt help of Rome’s champion, King Phillip II of Spain. Elizabeth turns to her trusted, if somewhat Machavellian sidekick Sir Francis Walsingham to watch her back. In steps the soon-to-be-knighted Walter Raleigh to also lend a hand and help her prepare for the coming Spanish invasion. When the battle finally comes, it’s almost anti-climatic. Add to it a couple of minor subplots involving Mary, Queen of Scots, and Sir Walter bonking one of Elizabeth’s lady’s in waiting (much to the Monarch’s chagrin as she has eyes for the roguish privateer), and you have your movie.
So what are the problems? Well, there's only one main hiccup, and that's the screenplay. The actors do ok, the cinematography isn't too shabby, even the direction gets a pass mark (although he can take some responsibility for interpreting the screenplay). Slow and ponderous is an understatement, not helped by bad misuse of English. Period pieces need a certain kind of language to fire (good examples include The Crucible, Dangerous Liaisons and Pride and Prejudice). This one doesn’t wash, which is weird, when you consider the first movie went over so well.
There is the odd, minor historical inaccuracy, but that could be easily forgiven if the movie was in drive, instead of being stuck in first-gear. Worth a miss.
1.5 stars out of 5
stu kicks