Elizabeth: The Golden Age

Directed by Shekhar Kapur. Universal Studios. Rated R. Rated PG-13. Running time: 1 hour, 54 min.

Directed by Shekhar Kapur. Universal Studios. Rated R. Rated PG-13. Running time: 1 hour, 54 min. © Universal StudiosCate Blanchett repeats her earlier triumph as Queen Elizabeth I in this sumptuous costume film that takes place during the late 1580s. Things seemed anything but golden to the Queen, beset as she is by plots to kill her at home and the threats of Spain's King Philip II (Jordi Molla) to stamp out the Anglican church and make Catholicism again the religion of England. Indeed, from the many burdens she bears, and the iconography (more on this later), it would be appropriate to rename the film The Passion of Elizabeth.

The events take place much later from Blanchett's earlier film, which depicted the imprisoned young Elizabeth barely escaping from death at the hands of her cousin Mary, and then ascending the throne when Mary died, leaving no heirs other than Elizabeth. The 1998 film shows the young queen fending off assassination attempts, the efforts of advisers to have her marry, and her eventual emergence as the "Virgin Queen," having accepted the fact that her lover, Lord Robert Dudley, is not suited to share in her rule. In both films Geoffrey Rush plays her wise and faithful chief adviser Sir Francis Walsingham.

Clive Owen plays the dashing adventurer Walter Raleigh, who arrives at court from the New World bringing the queen casks of gold coins seized from the Spanish, along with tobacco and a contingent of Native Americans. Drawn to him, she cannot act on her desires; so to keep him close at hand, she puts forth her chief lady-in-waiting, Bess (Abbie Cornish), to befriend him. Of course, the two fall in love once Raleigh realizes that an intimate relationship with the queen is impossible. This raises complications, but these pale before the other obstacles facing Elizabeth — a plot to kill her and place her Catholic relative Mary Queen of Scotland on the throne; the intention of King Philip II of Spain to destroy her and extirpate the Protestant religion in England; and, of course, the seemingly endless procession of royal suitors paraded before her by those anxious that she marry and produce an heir — the latter growing out of the real fear that another ruinous civil war could result if she dies with no heir to the throne.

The "passion" motif was raised in my mind by three scenes: the first showing a close-up of Elizabeth framed by her throne and room background that resembled a medieval icon of the Virgin; a second scene in which the queen seeks comfort in the arms of Walter Raleigh (before his marriage to Bess), her head on his lap in the manner of a Pieta; and the last in which she strides forth, dressed in a flowing white gown that gives her the look of divinity as she looks from the heights of a cliff upon a golden horizon with the vast Spanish Armada sailing toward her realm. This is a superior costume drama showing that the Christian faith was but a thin veneer for both Catholics and Protestants in the 16th century, easily pushed aside for the sake of “national security.”

-Ed McNulty