Either I read the schedule wrong, or the schedule was wrong. Whatever the truth, I didn't see Bobby today as planned, but instead went to watch The Queen. I really didn't know what to expect having heard very little about it. But I thought it was pretty good. Some of the dialogue was a bit stilted, and some of the acting wasn't top class. But then some of the dialogue was exceptional, and Helen Mirren's performance is really pretty good. I had to keep reminding myself it was her, because she looked so different. At the beginning I was a little bored, but when the tension between Blair and the Queen grew it was pretty gripping. I did think they overplayed the importance of the events, however, and relied too much on audience knowledge and sympathies. If this had been a film without any of its context - someone's ex-daughter-in-law dies in a car crash - then it would've been fairly uninteresting. It's the context that makes it powerful, and the filmmaker exploited this. Also, I found myself at odds with the direction the director wanted to take it. I sided with the Queen rather than Blair - why should there be a public funeral? It was a private matter.
Was this an English film? I think so. I have a problem with the English film industry. I don't really know what it is. But the music in this particular movie got me thinking: it seemed to undermine its own seriousness. The subject should be quite an intense one but the music was light and playful. It was as if the film knew it was English, and would never be taken seriously, so had to play up to its national idiosyncrasies. I don't know.
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