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The Queen

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7.0/10 • 1.4K

2006-09-151h 43m

DramaHistory

Our Leaders. Ourselves.

The Queen is an intimate behind the scenes glimpse at the interaction between HM Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Tony Blair during their struggle, following the death of Diana, to reach a compromise between what was a private tragedy for the Royal family and the public's demand for an overt display of mourning.

Directors
Stephen Frears
Editors
Lucia Zucchetti

Top Billed Cast

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  1. Helen Mirren

    Helen Mirren

    The Queen

  2. Michael Sheen

    Michael Sheen

    Tony Blair

  3. James Cromwell

    James Cromwell

    Prince Philip

  4. Helen McCrory

    Helen McCrory

    Cherie Blair

  5. Alex Jennings

    Alex Jennings

    Prince Charles

  6. Roger Allam

    Roger Allam

    Robin Janvrin

  7. Sylvia Syms

    Sylvia Syms

    Queen Mother

  8. Paul Barrett

    Paul Barrett

    Trevor Rees-Jones

  9. Tim McMullan

    Tim McMullan

    Stephen Lamport

Reviews1

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CinemaSerf

Sep 3, 2023

7/10

I'm not sure if Stephen Frears was really just trying to kick-start the Tony Blair fan club when he made this highly speculative and frankly rather unkind feature about how Queen Elizabeth II (Helen Mirren) - and, to an extent, her family - dealt with the aftermath of the death of the divorced Princess of Wales in Paris. Mr Blair (Michael Shannon) has only just been elected and together with his pretty openly hostile (to the monarchy) wife Cherie (Helen McCrory) heads to the palace for his appointment audience. When the tragedy does ensue, the Royal Family are at Balmoral in Aberdeenshire and the remainder of this film - intercut with occassional news actuality - postulates on just how the relationship between the prime minister and his Sovereign might have played out in the face of the growing and totally irrational public outpourings of grief and frustrations following the accident. Mirren and Shannon are both on great form here and even if the former is more of a mimic than an actress with this part, she still imbues enough characterisation for us to accept the plausibility that this might just have been the response of the actual Queen Elizabeth. It's beautifully shot and it was nice to see Sylvia Syms on screen again, albeit briefly and again, rather unsympathetically. I can't help but wonder how much of this has become the gospel in many people's eyes as to just how things did happen back in 1997. Somehow, I very much doubt it - but it's interesting to watch nonetheless.

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Status
Released
Original Language
English
Budget
$15,000,000.00
Revenue
$123,384,128.00
Keywords
dying and deathgreat britainupper classloss of loved onesadnessqueenpaparazziheadlinemonarchypalaceroyal familybiographybased on true storydeerbritish prime minister1990sbritish royal familybritish monarchywestminster abbeyprincess diana