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Queen, The
Miramax Films

Queen, The reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 91 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
6.0 out of 10
based on 37 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 236 votes
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Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for brief strong language

Starring Helen Mirren, Michael Sheen, James Cromwell, Sylvia Syms, Alex Jennings, Helen McCrory, Roger Allam, and Paul Barrett

The Queen takes audiences behind the scenes of one of the most shocking public events of recent times -- providing an illuminating, deeply affecting and dramatic glimpse into what happens in the corridors of power when a tragedy strikes. (Miramax)


GENRE(S): Drama  
WRITTEN BY: Peter Morgan  
DIRECTED BY: Stephen Frears  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: April 24, 2007 
Theatrical: September 30, 2006 
RUNNING TIME: 97 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: UK / France / Italy 

Received a total of 6 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. FIPRESCI Prize, Best Screenplay and Best Actress (Mirren), 2006 Venice Film Festival

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100
New York Magazine David Edelstein
The Queen is the most reverent irreverent comedy imaginable. Or maybe it's the most irreverent reverent comedy. Either way, it's a small masterpiece.
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100
The New York Times Manohla Dargis
A sublimely nimble evisceration of that cult of celebrity known as the British royal family.
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100
Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
Helen Mirren gives the mostly subtly expressive performance based on a living historical figure that I've ever seen.
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100
New York Post Lou Lumenick
All hail the great Helen Mirren, who after her triumph in HBO's "Elizabeth," delivers the performance of a lifetime as that monarch's frumpy, 20th century namesake in Stephen Frear's witty, touching and engrossing The Queen.
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100
LA Weekly Scott Foundas
Politically shrewd, unexpectedly funny yet immaculately tasteful docudrama.
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100
USA Today Claudia Puig
The Queen is the kind of thought-provoking, well-written and savvy film that discerning filmgoers long for but rarely get.
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100
Boston Globe Ty Burr
A subtle, often very funny, ultimately touching tragedy of royal manners and meaning.
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100
Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
Piercingly funny and unexpectedly moving account of that odd couple, Prime Minister Tony Blair (Michael Sheen) and HRH Elizabeth II (majestic Helen Mirren) and their back-channels affair.
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100
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
The Queen is a spellbinding story of opposed passions -- of Elizabeth's icy resolve to keep the royal family separate and aloof from the death of the divorced Diana, who was legally no longer a royal, and of Blair's correct reading of the public mood.
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100
San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
An absolute delight, combining the cheap thrills of a biopic with the gentler, but more lasting, pleasures of a brilliant character study.
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100
Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
So magnificent in so many ways that, for the first time, it seems to raise the docudrama to high art.
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100
Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
Mirren brings intellect, humor and romance to the role of Elizabeth II.
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91
Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
The Queen is all-together remarkable not only for what it is but for what it isn't.
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91
The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps
Mirren begins the film having her portrait painted, looking every inch the monarch and proud to play the part. By the end, she's let the pressure of one week, and maybe a lifetime, show in her eyes.
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91
Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
Helen Mirren's allure lies not in finding what's regal in every woman she plays, but in finding what's womanly in every royal.
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90
Slate Dana Stevens
Helen Mirren is a goddess of an actress, and her Queen Elizabeth is maddening, hilarious, and deeply human, galumphing around the Balmoral estate in a tartan raincoat and waders as the Britain she thought she knew crumbles around her.
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90
Newsweek Barbara Kantrowitz
Marvelous, and surprisingly intimate.
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90
The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
A fascinating mix of high-minded gossip and historical perspective, examines the clash of values -- of ritual and traditions versus media savvy and political ambition -- that leads to a crisis for the British monarchy.
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90
Variety Derek Elley
Tradition and informality collide -- and mutually benefit -- in the deliciously written and expertly played The Queen.
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90
Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
In a commanding performance that is as compelling as it is unexpected, Mirren has turned The Queen into something you never imagined it could be: a crackling dramatic story that's intelligent, thoughtful and moving.
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90
Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
Mirren's performance is glorious: Rather than impersonate the queen -- which would have been all too easy to do -- she reaches deeper to locate the buried, calcified thoughts and feelings that might guide this deeply inscrutable woman.
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90
Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
Marvelously smart, funny and entertaining film.
90
Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
Helen Mirren's flinty performance as Elizabeth II is getting all the attention, but equally impressive is Peter Morgan's insightful script for this UK drama, which quietly teases out the social, political, and historical implications of the 1997 death of Diana, Princess of Wales.
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89
Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
The Queen is palace intrigue at its finest.
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88
Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
The film goes pretty easy on the royals in the end, and it's a flattering portrait of Blair. But it's not credulous. Frears may swim in the political mainstream with The Queen but he does so like a champion channel crosser.
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88
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
Succeeding where most docudramas fail, it turns a slice of recent history into a revealingly intelligent entertainment, without being didactic at one extreme or sentimental at the other.
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88
Premiere Aaron Hillis
The Queen is a surprisingly compassionate portrait (excepting Blair's reactionary wife with the "shallow curtsy") of a rigid pragmatist in denial over the monarchy's out-of-touch dysfunction.
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88
TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
Mirren, who's played her share of queens in the past, is hypnotic.
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88
Rolling Stone Peter Travers
One of the best and liveliest movies of the year - funny and touching in ways you can't predict.
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88
New York Daily News Jack Mathews
In some ways, The Queen is a comedy of manners - bad, good and archaic. The formal bowing and scraping surrounding Her Majesty is as hilarious as it is (apparently) accurate.
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80
Village Voice J. Hoberman
More fun than any movie about the violent death of a 36-year-old woman has a right to be. It's also as exotic an English-language picture as the season is likely to bring.
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80
Washington Post Desson Thomson
Mirren's finely calibrated performance reveals a complex woman coping with a bewildering world, and Blair's growing sympathy for his beleaguered monarch gradually becomes ours. This nuanced compassion may not impress the real Queen Elizabeth II, but, for us commoners, it makes for a richer experience.
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80
Empire Kim Newman
Fascinating, funny, wicked and to the point, this is an excellent film about a week every Briton over the age of 15 will remember vividly.
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80
Time Richard Corliss
Mirren, who won an Emmy playing Elizabeth I for HBO, may deserve an Oscar for this ripe appraisal of Elizabeth II.
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80
The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann
Whatever the virtues of The Queen--and it certainly has them--it simply would not exist without Mirren.
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75
Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
The Queen taps into the universal curiosity the world shares toward royal families -- an element of the movie that Frears wisely mines for gentle humor.
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70
The New Yorker Anthony Lane
How could Frears and his cast rise above the sins of the miniseries? One answer is the force of that cast...The other thing that rescues and refines The Queen is one of the basic bonuses of moviegoing, more familiar of late from documentaries like "Touching the Void" and "Capturing the Friedmans": you come out arguing.
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What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 6.0 (out of 10) based on 236 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Stan S. gave it a2:
Some movies seem to exist simply in order to win awards. This i feel is one of those movies, and while i did think it did a good job showing why she responded the way she did it did not keep me interested.

Carol D. gave it a10:
Excellent on all levels. I enjoyed it, was amused and I was touched by all of the characters and not just The Queen. Everyone did a magnificent job with a very difficult subject.

Richard D. gave it a2:
A really boring film. Made for cardboard Brits. Not at all entertaining - I feel asleep 3 or 4 times and then turned it off. I won't be going back.

Tony B. gave it an8:
"The Queen" shows that in today's film industry there are still intelligent people who make intelligent motion pictures for intelligent audiences.

Nick A. gave it a10:
Stephen Frears has caught much acclaim for his razor-sharp style of filming and his unwavering demand for his audience’s complete intrigue. His most recent film, 'The Queen,' which has been hailed by critics nationwide as one of the year’s best films, is precisely that. Receiving six Oscar nominations, including Best Motion Picture of the Year, the film sees beyond its apparent glory, and behind the gates of London’s Buckingham Palace. Frears contributes life and deep metaphoric artistry to a film that, with its appointed topic, could very well have become an insincere poke at a restless matter. However, the film shreds any note of false intentions with a slew of factual documentation and archival footage. The performances, especially that delivered by Helen Mirren, are dead-on. Michael Sheen is very convincing as a young Tony Blair as well, providing the story with a hopeful outlook on a somber matter. 'The Queen' gives viewers a first-hand look at the happenings of Britain’s Royal family in the week following the death of Princess Diana. The film, as compelling as it is, also manages to exhaust its audience. The heartbreak of Diana’s death is confused by the Royal family and left to the ostensibly cold-hearted Queen to allow the public their right to a first-hand goodbye. However, as the film progresses we are drained of all emotions, as we are one with the Queen and her struggle to store away her animosity towards the Princess to render herself a worthy leader of the people. There is a scene in the film in which the Queen has been stranded amidst her 40,000 acres, with a vast emptiness surrounding her. As she sits aside her broken-down truck, we see her, for the first time, express anguish over the loss of the Princess. Then, she is met by a 14-point stag, one that the family had been hunting for. As it inches closer towards her, we hear a gunshot and the Queen attempts at scaring it away, so as for it not to be shot. This scene is so powerful because it finally enables the audience to see the Queen's heart, as she had kept it hidden for so long. It took the absence of another human being for miles in all directions for the Queen to allow feelings of despair and tragedy to seep through her seemingly impermeable skin. The landscapes of the film take you by wonder and the score, by Alexandre Desplat, haunts you long after the film has come to an end. If you’re into an emotional, yet captivating time at the movies, there’s no better film than 'The Queen.'

Pat C. gave it a7:
Looks like it's still possible to make a good historical drama while the events that transpired are fresh and the characters involved are still alive. This movie did everything right and nothing wrong. Well crafted with an eye to historical accuracy and nuances of personality. It perfectly executed its concept, but that's as far as it went. It's refusal to depict more of the previous lives of the characters (including Diana) gives it a limited dimension which after a time begins to weigh on the eyelids.

Pat L. gave it a5:
I wonder if the reviewers would have been less enamored of this film had it been someone other than Queen Elizabeth being portrayed. No argument: Helen Mirren was marvelous in capturing the subtleties and repressed feelings of her character, but to what end? It wasn't particularly interesting, and it certainly wasn't entertaining. To its credit, this film didn't "go Hollywood" with the royal family, but a meandering trip to Dullsville is no better.

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