The Queen
Miramax Films | Release Date: September 30, 2006 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
91
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 37 Critic Reviews
Positive:
37
Mixed:
0
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
New York Magazine (Vulture)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. Read full review
100
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
A sublimely nimble evisceration of that cult of celebrity known as the British royal family. Read full review
100
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
Helen Mirren gives the mostly subtly expressive performance based on a living historical figure that I've ever seen. Read full review
100
New York PostLou 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. Read full review
100
L.A. WeeklyScott Foundas
Politically shrewd, unexpectedly funny yet immaculately tasteful docudrama. Read full review
100
USA TodayClaudia Puig
The Queen is the kind of thought-provoking, well-written and savvy film that discerning filmgoers long for but rarely get. Read full review
100
Boston GlobeTy Burr
A subtle, often very funny, ultimately touching tragedy of royal manners and meaning. Read full review
100
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie 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. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger 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. Read full review
100
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
An absolute delight, combining the cheap thrills of a biopic with the gentler, but more lasting, pleasures of a brilliant character study. Read full review
100
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
So magnificent in so many ways that, for the first time, it seems to raise the docudrama to high art. Read full review
100
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
Mirren brings intellect, humor and romance to the role of Elizabeth II. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyLisa 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. Read full review
91
The A.V. ClubKeith 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. Read full review
91
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
The Queen is all-together remarkable not only for what it is but for what it isn't. Read full review
90
NewsweekBarbara Kantrowitz
Marvelous, and surprisingly intimate. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterKirk 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. Read full review
90
VarietyDerek Elley
Tradition and informality collide -- and mutually benefit -- in the deliciously written and expertly played The Queen. Read full review
90
SlateDana 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. Read full review
90
SalonStephanie 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. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesKenneth 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. Read full review
90
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
Marvelously smart, funny and entertaining film.
90
Chicago ReaderJ.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. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
The Queen is palace intrigue at its finest. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter Travers
One of the best and liveliest movies of the year - funny and touching in ways you can't predict. Read full review
88
New York Daily NewsJack 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. Read full review
88
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
Mirren, who's played her share of queens in the past, is hypnotic. Read full review
88
PremiereAaron 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. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael 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. Read full review
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. Read full review
80
EmpireKim 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. Read full review
80
Village VoiceJ. 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. Read full review
80
TimeRichard Corliss
Mirren, who won an Emmy playing Elizabeth I for HBO, may deserve an Oscar for this ripe appraisal of Elizabeth II. Read full review
80
Washington PostDesson 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. Read full review
80
The New RepublicStanley Kauffmann
Whatever the virtues of The Queen--and it certainly has them--it simply would not exist without Mirren. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene 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. Read full review
70
The New YorkerAnthony 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. Read full review
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