Delayed Reaction: The Queen

The Pitch: Shouldn't Helen Mirren have an Oscar by now?

Queen Elizabeth figures out the monarchy's response after the death of Princess Diana.

This is a biopic done right. I'd rather see an in depth story about small period of someone's life than something that tries to cover the whole thing and short-changes each chapter. I don't even care that much about the English royals and the palace intrigue in general, but I liked this. I was a little young to appreciate the impact of Princess Diana's death when it happened, so this was a nice perspective on it. It was a big deal. Like, I'm trying to think of a current comparison. She wasn't really a politician or an entertainer. She was just famous and visible, like Kim Kardashian if everyone liked Kim Kardashian. To the British royals, she was more of a nuisance though after the divorce. It's interesting to see that perspective of the events.

And Helen Mirren is great. That's one of those obvious Oscar performances. You watch it and think, " naturally, she won the Oscar. There's no other option". I don't think there are many people shouting that Judi Dench was robbed that year, for example.

As I mentioned though, I'm not a huge fan of this kind of palace intrigue, so I could only get so invested in the movie. None of the performances beyond Mirren's and maybe Michael Sheen's Tony Blair are much of anything and I think the film does rely a bit too much on already having a cursory knowledge of the different royals at the time. Like watching The Crown, I had a Wikipedia article or two pulled up the whole time.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend