This time, it's personal
In 1585, Queen Elizabeth faced the same questions today's working women encounter: Where do you draw the line between business and personal life?
And, are those co-workers really friends, or are they just sucking up to the boss?
"Elizabeth: The Golden Age" succeeds largely because writers William Nicholson and Michael Hirst examine the gap between the Virgin Queen's political might and personal loneliness with such unflinching honesty.
Still, it could have been a more satisfying movie if it had tread more lightly over the political intrigue and the preparations for war, which bog it down at times, and focused on Elizabeth as a person.
Some of the most compelling moments show the queen (Cate Blanchett) in the relationships that mean something to her.
She showers her lady-in-waiting Bess (Abbie Cornish) with a maternal, affectionate friendship, and engages Sir Walter Raleigh (Clive Owen) in from-the-soul talk about how to face one's greatest, deepest fears. It's a topic that rings as true for a queen confronting powerful armies as for an explorer navigating a vast unknown ocean. And Owen brings layers of richness to Raleigh.
Elizabeth winds up on the losing corner of a love triangle, posing the question of whether a monarch can be loved for who she is as a person, or whether her power gets in the way.
Blanchett does some magnificent acting, just as she did in the 1998 prequel, "Elizabeth." That film traced her rise to the throne; this one looks at the middle years of her rule, when she consolidates power.
With a single look, Blanchett gives away how deeply the monarch has been hurt in love. Yet she becomes imperious when tongue-lashing the aggressors from Spain, and a lioness when rousing her troops for battle.
Though Blanchett is almost always fascinating to watch, director Shekhar Kapur (who also directed "Elizabeth") lets the story wander into some boring stretches after the halfway point.
In "Elizabeth," it was a fun challenge to keep track of all the rivals that wanted her dead so they could pluck her crown for themselves. Here, the plotters just become tedious.
Kapur keeps an uneven pace, alternating the absorbing personal drama with the slow parts. He's also given to getting overly dramatic. He doesn't hit us over the head with symbolism once, for example, when twice would do.
The last third of the movie really gets moving, however, as King Philip II of Spain (intensely played as a loony religio-fanatic by Jordi Molla) spends his country's considerable wealth building an armada to crush Elizabeth, a Protestant, whom he sees as a heretic and a serious threat to Catholicism in Europe.
The British are outnumbered, and the movie gets the blood pumping as they rush to defend their shores.
Naturally, Blanchett is at her most majestic when inspiring her countrymen to block the invaders. She delivers her exhortation clad in silver armor on a prancing horse, with her long hair whipping in the wind.
This is an inconsistency, since she has short hair in the rest of the film. But it can be forgiven, because it looks good.
The film as a whole is visually beautiful, thanks to Remi Adefarasin's photography and Blanchett's high cheekbones, Cornish's loveliness and Owen's sexy three-day stubble.
Alexandra Byrne's costumes outdo even those in "Elizabeth," with the queen's enormous skirts and elaborate hair adornments reflecting the increasing prosperity of the times.
The movie has its flaws. But it provides a thought-provoking look at the privileges, the gut-wrenching decisions and the loneliness that come with great power.
"Elizabeth: The Golden Age"
2 1/2 stars out of four
Opens Oct. 12
As
Cate Blanchett as Queen Elizabeth I
Clive Owen as Sir Walter Raleigh
Abbie Cornish as Bess Throckmorton
Jordi Molla as King Philip II of Spain
With Geoffrey Rush and Samantha Morton.
Written by William Nicholson and Michael Hirst. Produced by Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner and Jonathan Cavendish. Directed by Shekhar Kapur. A Universal release. Rated PG-13 (violence, sexual situations, nudity). Running time: 115 minutes.