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Directed by: Stephen Frears

Cast: Helen Mirren, James Cromwell, Alex Jennings, Roger Allam, Sylvia Syms, Tim McMullan, Robin Soans

Runtime: 97 mins

This is a film with very familiar people in an unfamiliar setting. It takes a lot of people to change the face of the world. But it sometimes takes a little more than people to change other people but it is incidents. One of the few incidents that change the face of the century was the death of Princess Diana. Many directors wanted to jump at the chance of directing her life or any part of it for commercial gain. But it took Stephen Frears to make it as powerful as this. The performance by the legendary Helen Mirren as the Queen has put on her on the map finally. She won all the awards last year without a miss akin to what Daniel Day Lewis did this year. Helen is a very strong character actor who gets into the role like a chameleon. At times it looks like she is a spitting image of the Queen. She has reached cinemas royalty after this brave performance.

There also several other characters in this that creates a mark like Tony Blair and his sarcastic wife. They try to bring the necessary change into the government that it really needs. This change seems to be uncalled for by some but becomes necessary after the death of the Princess. It was a time when the Queen felt that her place was beginning to be questioned with so many antics done by the young princess. The story of the Queen is something we have read in the news and many of us have probably visited her home to get a closer look. But the director goes into places and creates situation that bring in a reality that is so not seen on cinema. He creates by reaction and by hindsight the setting for a film that recreates the corridors of the Buckingham palace. The detailing makes us feel like we are in the Queens quarters and also make us close into the heat of things. The film revolves around the time when the Princess began dating Dodi till her ultimate death. This approach makes the film more accessible and almost bordering on a thriller element that is almost unexpected.

Tony Blair takes a more respectable side with his admiration for the Queen and what she stands for. But the empathy shown towards the man is something very controversial. He is a man who probably has changed through those early days. So this portrayal almost feels like a lie that might not go down well with many people. But the film on the whole is a careful observation on the problems that the Queen faced and the public outrage she had to go through during the death of Diana.