Elizabeth: The Golden Age

Visually stunning, Elizabeth: The Golden Age definitely has succeeded in being a beautiful painting like film. Narratively, however, Elizabeth never seems to reach any real climax or tension. Directed by Shekhar Kapur, the director who also directed the first installment of which The Golden Age should be the second part of a trilogy about the life of Elizabeth I, the film never manages to rise above the level it sets up at the beginning. There are some moments which should deliver some real peaks, but never really do so. The ending of the film, which involves the big battle against the Spanish armada, is nothing more than a painting brought to life, with unfortunately not much exitement involved. The overall feeling you have watching Elizabeth is an empty one. You watch a stream of images go passed you, but never feel truly engaged with the characters and the events they go through. Still, though, Elizabeth: The Golden Age is quite an entertaining film. Like the first one it involves a lot of heavy talking, intrigue, and passionate affairs. The musical score is full of bombast which fits the triumphant atmosphere the film constantly seems to want to project. Cate Blanchett, who returns as Elizabeth I, gives a whirlwind of a performance. Every gesture every look of her eyes, she is Elizabeth. Even more than in the first Elizabeth she takes charge of the film, making her presence more than felt in every scene she's in. Abbie Cornish, who came to attention after starring in the little film Sommersault, gives a very nice performance as well and brings in a character distinct from Elizabeth, one that is still delicate and ready to come to full bloom. Where Elizabeth is all strength and fire, Cornish plays the sweet other Elizabeth, who comes to be called Bess, the queen's favourite. Both falling for the same man played by Clive Owen, Sir Walter Raleigh is one of the new male characters. Geoffrey Rush who also starred in the first Elizabeth just like Blanchett makes a return and does so wonderfully. Jordi Mollà who plays King Philip II and especially Samantha Morton, the second big name actress who in the trailer is mentioned as one if its big stars, both end up having very small roles with not much screen time. Morton looks great as Mary Stuart, already making a very lasting impression for the brief moments she is on screen. However, these moments are far too short and her performance could really have dazzled if being bigger. With the film only cutting back to her for less than a couple of minutes before going back to the world involving Elizabeth, her part is too small to really turn it into an award winning performance, which it no doubt would have turned out to be. Being one of the frontrunners to earn some Academy Awards nominations, after many critics attented the first couple of screenings, opinions quickly changed. Even though very beautiful and led by a very strong performance by one of the industry's best actresses of today, Elizabeth: The Golden Age has not much more to offer and seems just mediocre and nothing special. Compared to the first Elizabeth this second installment comes out inferior.

What is it about?

After proclaiming herself as the Virgin Queen, Elizabeth I is back after she left us in Elizabeth. Good times have arrived and a peaceful period seems near. However, King Philip II of Spain has set his eyes on England and soon will start a war. Slowly losing control of her country and her people, Elizabeth has to decide whether or not to go to war and make some dreadful decisions along the way. Meanwhile exploring love with adventurer Sir Walter Raleigh, of whom she seems very impressed, she starts to have dreams about maybe giving up live as a queen and travel the world. Also spending lots of time with the young Bess, her lady-in-waiting, Elizabeth starts to forget about what's really important, the future of her people. When betrayal starts to rise up eventually also invading Elizabeth's private property, things start to go awfully wrong and Elizabeth is thrown back in reality once again turning into the powerful and statuesque queen the people came to knew her for.

Final Verdict: ***1/2

Elizabeth: The Golden Age could have been much better if only it had been more human and less sensational, almost God like. Everything from the music to the costumes seems to want to wow us ending up at times being way too much and somewhat over the top. Beautiful white horses jumping off a burning ship and filmed from beneath the surface makes for beautiful images, but a bit too beautiful and painting like actually, making it seem rather fake. This is one of the main problems of Elizabeth, which seems somwhat plastic and too fabricated to be really sincere and convincing. Every scene seems to want to be end up in a trailer, showing off its power. Apart from all these crticisms, Elizabeth is still a good film. If you just sit back and relax, putting your mind at rest, you can take it all in having a pretty nice night at the movies. However if you're not interested in a film which seems to want to project Britains historic strength, making them seem superior to everything else and showing almost nothing of the enemy, which in this episode is Spain, it doesn't give a really fair look and is slightly one sided. The only thing which makes it worth seeing still are its powerful performances, especially by Blanchett and the fresh faced Cornish. If Shekhar Kapur and the crew decide to still make a third film about Elizabeth, hopefully it will present less overwhelming music and images and more heart and real characters.