I was on a fairly remote holiday the week Diana died, so this film was something of a revelation for me- thank God I was spared the sight of my countrymen transforming themselves into rabid, weeping, zombified tabloid junkies. The film depicts a state of national hysteria not seen since The Beatles, and it’s deeply unsettling.
The film itself is surprisingly effective- I was expecting drawing room drama, and there’s a fair amount of that. But the writers manage to get a real foothold on the characters, as do the actors- both Helen Mirren and particularly Michael Sheen do an astonishing job working within a restrictive cage of necessary mimicry, managing not only to convey absolutely the personalities they are invoking, but to make us care about them, which in the case of Tony Blair is an achievement little short of miraculous. Credit, too, for Mark Bazeley as Alastair Campbell, who exudes all the dripping revulsion of that most odious of all Blair’s cronies. This, too, would have been a more worthy Best Picture winner than The Departed.
by Tom Huddleston | Source: DVD
20 Mar 2007 1:37 PM | Comments (1)
I was living in London the day D died and although the TV and tabloids were splattered with the news most people seem to have gone on with their lives. I found the movie indulgent and inaccurate. It seems that it was made to serve the royal linage. It is time that brighten moves on with the times and see their royalty to what they are…
Petros
21 March 2007
12:13 AM