the movieGOOMBA

When I think of Princess Diana, I always picture her holding an African baby in her arms. It's the media's fault. I've been brainwashed. What I completely forgot about was the media's coverage of her partying. I mean, she was way out of the Lindsay-Britney-Paris League, but she was very much in the celebrity, A-List only scene. Elton, Nichole, and the Tom's (Hanks and Cruise) attended her funeral for gosh sake! So when I saw The Queen, I was definitely reminded of her dual lifestyle, and I think that's what the world was so intrigued with. She could live the rock star life and still be a humanitarian princess (real and metaphorical).

Depicted from Queen Elizabeth II's point of view, The Queen offers a different perspective of the week following Princess Diana's death. What was so interesting was that this story was really believable. What if the Royal Family didn't understand that Princess Di meant more to the public than just the princess partier they knew? What if the Queen Elizabeth truly believed that a private funeral was sufficient and more thoughtful? Of course the Royal Family would be more concerned with William and Harry than of their media image. People can be very quick to judge, especially if fueled by tabloid opinion, so it was striking to see a point of view that I had originally disregarded.

I felt bad for Elizabeth. Here she is, the Queen of England, trying to hold down the fort, her main concern is always about the boys. We don't even know if she likes being queen, and it sucks to be judged and hated by people, people who don't even know you, the people who you have given you free life for. If you look at it that way, it's really sad.

Helen Mirren did deserve the Oscar for The Queen. She brought a softness and strength to Elizabeth that was so compelling, but simultaneously there was a stern conduct about her. You could really see her, but she tried not to let you. The deer scene is a perfect display of this. At first I thought that deer scene was a little out of place (the director/writers trying to get a bit artsy), but in the end I think that it revealed a lot about Elizabeth; who she was, and what she respected.

This movie isn't hard to watch, and it's very thought-provoking. Its really easy to judge people, especially of those under the media's microscope, and we forget that these people are just that, people. However, the irony is although they are just people, at the end of the day, they still are who they are, and the Queen will always wake up and be Queen. She will never be just a person.