Elizabeth: The Golden Age

Grandeur + fantastic costumes + screen hotties = appealing look at 'history'

Lots of critics have stated that Elizabeth: The Golden Age is nowhere near as good as Elizabeth. I think they are flat-out wrong. I will concede that there is almost no way to repeat or top the impact of the first film, but they come pretty close.

(From here on out, I will have to borrow EW's critic Lisa Schwartzbaum's naming system: "E1" and "E2")

I find it a bit odd that a director with relatively little experience was handed E1 and its assuredly huge production budget in the first place. I guess that goes to show that you do not have to be born in a place to properly revere its history. (Although his following film, Four Feathers, was a real snore!) Whatever his background, I say "Let Shekar Kapur at it!" He did a fabulous job with the first film, revealing the shining Cate Blanchett and breathing new life in to the costume-drama and historical piece genres. I was in high school the first time around, and was also inspired to learn more about the vaunted monarch. Kapur says that he has a trilogy in mind and I can't wait to see the final installment. As long as he keeps making these movies, assuming he doesn't relax his standards, I am there to see them.

E2 represents the natural progression in the life of an extraordinary woman who was bounds ahead of her time. E1 focused on her climb to power, but E2 explores the emotional, personal, and political costs of staying on top. Here is a woman who has just about everything at her command, but she still wants more. Her wants, it turns out, are for the things that come with a more normal life. Not only that, but the stakes of the game that she is playing are her country and her life (for her, in that order). One critic said that this was the most expensive game of Barbie that they had seen. True, perhaps, but only in the way that it was Elizabeth who was the puppet master. It is fascinating to watch her fly in a rage at her lady in waiting for daring to yank some slack into her own strings, rather than depending on her mistress to allow it to her. The relationship between the two characters, rather, between so many of the characters is what drives this movie, not a succession of action-inducing murder. There are still intrigues and assassination attempts in E2, but this time it is about the person underneath the crown and the costs of bearing it.

So no, E2 is not going to be as thrilling as E1. That kind of magic is hard to repeat, but the second film is no less marvelous in many other ways. I still think that there should be Oscar nominations all around, and a certain win in the costume category. Geoffrey Rush has certainly given another terrific performance. I adore the paternal relationship that has sprung up between Walsingham and his sovereign; I hope that depiction was accurate, because anyone familiar with the life of the lady knows that her own father never gave her a positive model. Walsingham too has given up much for the sake of queen and country, and he is paying for it with his health. Like him, Elizabeth has known power and control, but cannot relinquish it no matter the personal cost. They reveal the addictiveness that such command can inspire, while also showing that it can eventually wear your down and come close to destroying the person inside.
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