After watching the preview for Elizabeth: The Golden Age I expected a movie that would blow me away, but then early word out of the film festivals began to circulate and the consensus seemed to simply say it was pretty, big and loud but had nothing to offer. I can’t entirely disagree with this sentiment as this isn’t exactly a period piece in as much as it is a costume blockbuster set in 1585 filled with a CG Spanish Armada and love stories that never existed. It isn’t often I would look at a story of Queen Elizabeth I and say it is nothing more than a popcorn piece, but that’s pretty much all this is.
Taking place during Elizabeth’s 27th year as Queen the sequel to the 1998 hit that found relative newcomer Cate Blanchett snubbed by the Academy as Gwyneth Paltrow took home the Oscar for Best Actress for her role in Shakespeare in Love. The Golden Age was being looked at as Blanchett’s chance at redemption despite winning Best Supporting Actress for The Aviator, unfortunately while Blanchett is once again great as Elizabeth the film she occupies is likely to be counted against her.
This time around Elizabeth has several parties once again vying for her thrown as King Philip II of Spain (Jordi Molla) and Mary Stuart (Samantha Morton) both contemplate her assassination. Mary Stuart goes the subversive route and is belittled to nothing more than a school girl passing notes only to get caught by the teacher despite Morton’s terrific performance. Meanwhile Philip decides to chop down all of the trees in Spain to make his soon-to-be CGI fleet of ships. While all this is going on Elizabeth is playing coy games with Walter Raleigh (Clive Owen) dreaming of a relationship you as an audience member know is doomed from the start.
After a little bit of research you will quickly learn their are inaccuracies everywhere and while it doesn’t necessarily hurt the entertainment value, it is just one more thing the film doesn’t have going for it. First of all, Blanchett is portraying a Queen Elizabeth that was 52-years-old, but you would be hard pressed to prove Blanchett looks a day over 35 and her relationship, as fleeting as it is, with Raleigh never happened. Dramatic license is taken in many movies of course, but this film never tried to be anything other than a period piece, and in keeping with those terms it should have known better.
On a more positive note, the acting in this film is brilliant as Clive Owen proves he needs to be cast in something Shakespearean and Cate Blanchett is just as majestic as she was the first time around. Abbie Cornish is a relative newcomer to the scene, but her performance as Elizabeth “Bess” Throckmorton is an excellent turn for the young actress. Unfortunately Geoffrey Rush’s character of Sir Francis Walsingham takes a backseat in this film and Samantha Morton hardly gets an opportunity to prove how great she is as Mary Stuart, which would have been a plot thread they could have dug deeper in and improved their film tenfold.
Length and focus, really spells this film’s demise. It is far too short for the story they were trying to tell and the focus is everywhere due to them trying to cram several plot points inside of two hours while making time for romance, deceit and war. While I didn’t mind seeing The Golden Age and actually enjoyed it on a purely visceral level, it is a rather large disappointment when you compare it to its predecessor.
