Elizabeth: The Golden Age [2007]

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Editorial reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review
Elizabeth: The Golden Age may not have been bestowed with a similar shower of awards (nor quite as glowing critical reaction) as its predecessor. But don’t be fooled: this is a terrific costume drama, and one that very much leaves you hoping for the hinted-at third installment.

Once again starring Cate Blanchett in the title role, Elizabeth: The Golden Age sees events pick up with her very well established on the throne. It’s a new set of problems and issues that present themselves, with the impending threat of the Spanish Armada, and the scheming Mary, Queen Of Scots (brilliantly played by the always-terrific Samantha Morton) foremost in her mind.

That is, of course, apart from Sir Walter Raleigh, played by Clive Owen. Elizabeth: The Golden Age adds a potential romance for the virgin Queen, one that she struggles to come to terms with. And in the capable hands of returning director Shekhar Kapur, these many threads are woven together skillfully and a willingness to break the conventions of the period drama.

The star attraction remains Blanchett again, of course, whose performance is just as striking and textured as it was nearly a decade before. Elizabeth: The Golden Age may have an impressive cast, but all of them must have known they were on a hiding to nothing going up against the majesty (in more than one sense) of Blanchett. Because while the film itself does have a problems, it’s still better than you may have been led to believe, and boasts a tour-de-force central performance that you simply won’t see matched very often at all. --Jon Foster

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Customer reviews

review by: date: 2008-11-01 rating:
Not a disaster but less than commanding
At once more ambitious and less intriguing than its predecessor, Elizabeth: The Golden Age certainly isn't the abject disaster reviewers claimed on its theatrical release, although it's not nearly as engrossing as the original. Unfortunately, while Shekhar Kapur opens up the action and opts for a much lighter palate this time round, with at least a trailer's worth of striking visuals, the results are not particularly compelling. By focusing on the best-known part of the Virgin Queen's reign there's less of the constant sense of danger that marked its predecessor even though it amps up the threat by pitting her not against her own court but the might of the Spanish Empire and its Armada. Yet, being a sequel, it adheres to the `the same but different,' and there's certainly a strong element of déjà vu: the dastardly Catholics are still plotting her death, with Rhys Ifans and Samantha Morton taking on the Daniel Craig and Fanny Ardant roles of Jesuit hitman and conspiring Scottish queen. And, as before, history isn't well served, with the film offering the notion that Philip of Spain conspired to force Elizabeth to execute Mary Queen of Scots to give him an excuse for a holy war.

The script certainly could have been better, running down rather than gaining momentum as the Armada approaches and dropping the ball in many of the obvious slamdunks. Certainly if you're going to omit Elizabeth's famous "I may have the body of a weak and foolish woman, but I have the heart of a king" you need to come up with something with more guts and bravado than the tired horseback speech she gives to rally her troops. Even worse, the Armada itself is something of an anti-climax. The almost painting-like CGi effects aren't as much a problem in a film as occasionally stylised as this as are the all-too obvious budget limitations that reduce it to the odd running commentary that makes it somewhat akin to listening to a football game on the radio.

Performances are highly variable. Blanchett is suitably regal in the lead, with Geoffrey Rush and David Threlfall fare best among the courtiers, but Abbie Cornish makes little impression, Rhys Ifans just seems to be going through the motions and Samantha Morton is fairly awful as Mary. Both bland and risibly hammy at the same time, with her risibly overemphatic delivery she feels like a smug prefect in a school play playing up to the gallery rather than a credible conspiring monarch, giving easily the worst performance in the film even after the worst of her performance hit the cutting room floor. Yet the biggest surprise in the film is Clive Owen's Walter Raleigh.

If at first it seems disastrous casting the zombie-like Owen as the representation of the life and love Elizabeth can never have, but, amazingly, for once he almost rises to the occasion. Like many a bad actor he's utterly hopeless in the moments that aren't about him, looking bored when he's supposed to be listening, displaying complete disinterest in his scenes with Abbie Cornish and sleepwalking through the battle with the Armada, but for once he handles his monologues - the best writing in the film - surprisingly well, even changing his expression a few times, though quite why he chooses to play his early scenes with a bad American accent remains a mystery. It's not a perfect performance (the deleted scenes on the DVD show that his flat delivery and lack of timing botched a gift of a scene with Rush), but for the first time there are signs that if he was willing to really put in the work and had a director who wouldn't mistake talking in a bored Coventry accent for a performance he could be a capable jobbing supporting actor.

The 1.85:1 widescreen transfer is a bit disappointingly short on detail in some scenes, though there are a decent set of extras.

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review by: Jules date: 2008-09-22 rating:
Cor blimey Guvnor! What was all that about?
Spaniards are dressed in black and have mean, scowling faces. They are the ugly catholic baddies out to get whatever they can in the name of religion. Oh my goodness me yes...

England is a clean, gloriously-lit kingdom with a gorgeous, sexy queen that smoulders with her on-screen beau, the dashing, Bond-esque Sir Walter 'oh what a big ship I've got' Raleigh (see below). She bathes amidst the glow a million candles with her cute (blemish-free, full-head-of-teeth) handmaid. Lord Essex didn't exist, Lord Darnley didn't exist and the entire armada was defeated in 15 minutes! And Walter Raleigh's Walther PPK didn't jam once!

God, I love history! It makes me want to return the those wonderful days in the sun-drenched San Fernando Valley (or wherever they filmed this velvet epic) and go visit good Queen Bess. Maybe we could get a soda and some fries... take in a ride-in movie at the Globe?

OK, perhaps I'm missing something? is that cheeky DVD cover with Cate putting her finger to her lips really an ultra-clever director's ploy to let us know that the whole movie is really just one elaborate joke?

If you want a historically accurate look at the Elizabethan period try the second Blackadder series. It has so much more to offer than this sumptuous nonsense.

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review by: date: 2008-09-18 rating:
a visual delight, an interesting story but rarely exciting - but will appeal to people who don't like history books
As a visual spectacle this film is wonderful.
As a historical drama it is interesting but rarely exciting.I didn't really believe in the characters being portrayed in this film - particularly those in the royal circle - because they seemed to interact too freely and frivolously which in those ruthless authoritarian times could result in your head getting chopped off.However I would recommend the film to you because it builds to a satisfying conclusion and there is a terrific fight sequence between the spanish armada and the english navy with sir walter rayleigh and sir francis drake showing their mettle.An educational film - the clothing,furniture,paintings,buildings etc are historically accurate and the key events and speeches are historical fact.

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review by: date: 2008-08-24 rating:
Where was Sir Francis Drake?
This film was okay, but why wasn't Sir Francis Drake given more of a platform? He was surely the helmsman at the defeat of the Spanish Armada; famously 'singeing the King of Spain's beard.' As a Plymouthian, I was hoping to see more of him and less of Raleigh.


review by: date: 2008-08-12 rating:
A tonic
Superb photography but I am not sure about the history. It was the wind not the fire-ships which destroyed the Armada and where are the famed quotes about not making windows into men;s souls and her best lines before the Armada at Tilbury? I do not think this was at all an anti-catholic film. As far as England is concerned, Catholic Spain and its supporters were the enemy. A good tonic for a patriotic Englishman.

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