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Rating of
2/4
"Elizabeth: The Golden Age" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 01/28/2012
"Based upon" the life of Elizabeth I, The Golden Age is the kind of film that causes the words "sumptuous" and "lavish" to be bandied around, but it seemed to me to be somehow very TV standard. It is littered with historical innaccuracies and the superficial script plays out like a greatest hits of the events of her life, spending little time on the inter-relationship of characters, their motivations or the context in which they acted. Elizabeth is shown as a strong, perceptive and wily monarch while Clive Owen's Raleigh is little more than a Mills & Boon style swashbuckler who single handedly defeated the Spanish Armada (quite how he got promoted from potato discoverer to one man seventh fleet I don't know...) The direction concentrates far too much on pre-Raphaelite imagery and demotes …
Rating of
1.5/4
Overblown and underdeveloped
newmans_own - wrote on 10/12/2007
As in ELIZABETH, the film rests entirely upon Blanchett’s shoulders. Yet in the first half, the film seems to play almost as a comedy, and Blanchett reflects that. Instead of awe-inspiring tenacity, she imbues the character with a been-there, done-that sense of sarcasm reminiscent of Bette Davis in ALL ABOUT EVE. Once the action sets along its main course (the inevitable war with Spain), Blanchett strikes with all the bottled-in rage that the audience has been longing for. Her impassioned speeches, most notably to the Spanish ambassador and, later, to the English troops, are masterpieces of control and emotion.
The script’s emphasis on wind is rather irritating as well. Not only does there seem to be a constant dramatic breeze blowing through drapes and curtains, but the …
