She’s getting on in years, is married to her career, perhaps wishes she’d chosen marriage and motherhood -- and there’s just nothing she can do about those pesky wrinkles because SKII won’t be invented for 400 years.
Welcome to Elizabeth: The Golden Age – which, given its modern-woman spin, might as well have been called Sex And The Citadel"¦ And that’s not a criticism"¦.
I wasn’t a fan of the first Elizabeth and in Shekhar Kapur’s follow-up I was expecting another film with too much starch in its ruffled collars. But instead Elizabeth: The Golden Age is a colourful romp that’s not too concerned with historical accuracy.
Blanchett reprises her role as the Virgin Queen and it’s a suitably majestic performance. When we rejoin Liz she’s on the brink of Holy War with Spain; is troubled by having imprisoned Mary, Queen Of Scots and the appearance of bad boy Walter Raleigh has her loins rumbling royally.
What makes the film is Elizabeth’s humanity – with her sly asides, nods and winks, she’s a funny likeable character who just happens to have been elevated above mere mortals.
Her rarefied position also makes her at times desperate and vulnerable. Here Blanchett is in complete control and it’s a joy to watch her in full comic and dramatic flight. It’s the rest of the film that doesn’t measure up as well.
The well-worn historical events – from Mary’s fate on the chopping block to the showdown with the Spanish Armada – are orchestrated professionally but without much flair.
Geoffrey Rush returns as Elizabeth’s spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham and gets some strong moments but the third Australian in the cast, Abbie Cornish, isn’t given enough to do as gentlewoman Bess.
The film’s other big drawcard is Clive Owen as Sir Walter Raleigh, who has his Smoulder Meter set to 11 as ye piratical hunk of the high seas. It’s sometimes so overwrought it had the audience in giggles.
Similarly, the Spanish baddies are drawn with all the depth of Dr Evil.
From Kapur framing Elizabeth in heavenly lights as angelic choirs sing to Walter Raleigh’s brave but fictional heroics, this really is cheesy, comic book history.
But it’s for its sense of fun and for Blanchett’s marvellous acting that Elizabeth: The Golden Age garners three stars.
