| 100 |
Mr. Showbiz
This historical epic about the "virgin queen" of England's early life moves with the crackling urgency of a contemporary political thriller.
|
| 90 |
Washington Post
The fabulous Elizabeth reinvents English Tudor history as gangster movie.
|
| 90 |
Variety
David Rooney
Superior historical soap opera that shrewdly sidesteps all the cliches of British costume drama with its bold, often modern approach.
|
| 90 |
Washington Post
Where Elizabeth really triumphs over its dusty source material is in transforming all this boring history into a real, rip-roaring adventure tale.
|
| 90 |
Film.com
What's best about the film is not the hot romance, but the coldness that lies at its heart.
|
| 88 |
Chicago Sun-Times
The texture of the film is enough to recommend it, even apart from the story.
|
| 88 |
New York Daily News
A fascinating whirl of politics and palace intrigue.
|
| 83 |
Entertainment Weekly
This is a sensual, psychologically modern costume drama influenced by both "The Godfather" and gals' guides to empowerment.
|
| 80 |
Salon.com
Laura Miller
A handsome, diverting coming-of-intrigue story studded with meaty performances.
|
| 80 |
Village Voice
Elizabeth's most triumphant aspect is Blanchett's transformation from saucy, spirited toe-tapper to iconic Virgin Queen.
|
| 80 |
Slate
The movie's approach makes for juicy melodrama.
|
| 80 |
The New York Times
This Elizabeth is presented as a glamorously stressed-out modern woman who must cope with a super-intense case of having it all.
|
| 80 |
LA Weekly
Bollywood meets The Godfather.
|
| 80 |
Time
This darkly sumptuous, hypnotically complex movie ought to have many constituencies.
|
| 80 |
Los Angeles Times
Jack Matthews
Period movies inevitably reflect more about the period in which they're made than the period of their subject, and rarely has that been more evident -- or more distracting -- than it is with Elizabeth.
|
| 78 |
Austin Chronicle
Despite the florid trailers' emphasis on bodice-ripping romantic imagery, Elizabeth is above all a political thriller.
|
| 75 |
San Francisco Chronicle
Elizabeth works in a number of ways. It's a feminist film. It's also a kind of spy thriller and a superior historical drama.
|
| 75 |
Christian Science Monitor
Acted and directed with great energy and imagination.
|
| 75 |
San Francisco Examiner
History rendered with enough brains and imagination to more than make up for its few stumbles.
|
| 75 |
ReelViews
It's a rousing adventure that keeps the audience involved for the entirety of the two hour running time while opening a window into the culture that gave birth to Christopher Marlowe, Edmund Spenser, Francis Bacon, and William Shakespeare.
|
| 75 |
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Bad history it may be, but Elizabeth is a movie that makes you want more, as it plays to the myth of history's great actress-monarch, a character who puts today's tinselly political heros and heroines (royal and not), to shame.
|
| 70 |
Rolling Stone
The film belongs to Blanchett -- this hellcat Virgin Queen is something to see.
|
| 70 |
Newsweek
Jeff Giles
Kapur can't decide if he's making an art movie or a melodrama, an opera or a soap opera.
|
| 70 |
New Times (L.A.)
Although frustratingly confusing -- often the viewer can't be sure who is on which side or why -- the film brims with physical grandeur, exquisite costumes, and a captivating performance by Blanchett.
|
| 63 |
Chicago Tribune
The movie -- directed in such a frenziedly self-conscious style you often wonder whether the camera will topple over on his actors.
|
| 60 |
The Onion (A.V. Club)
But much of it, like its subject, is so cryptic, distractingly stylish, and impenetrably posed that it's rough going most of the way.
|
| 60 |
Chicago Reader
Whether the story's bald ironies are historical cliches or just dramatic ones, they convey only platitudes about gender, sexuality, and power.
|
| 60 |
TV Guide
Sandra Contreras
The conspicuous lack of emotional resonance makes this film "Queen Margot's" poor cold English cousin.
|
| 50 |
USA Today
A notably undynamic treatment of Protestant Elizabeth I's ascension to the British throne.
|
| 30 |
Film Threat
Ron Wells
All of the nutty editing and the loud score just grated on my nerves and failed the story.
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