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The Review - AT THE MOVIES with WILLIAM HALL
Published: 1 November 2007

Cate Blanchet as the Protestant queen

Cate reigns supreme in royal sequel

ELIZABETH: THE GOLDEN AGE
Directed by Shekhar Kapur
Certificate 12A

THE sequel to the multi-award-winning 1998 hit Elizabeth continues where we left off.
In 1585 the monarch (Cate Blanchett) is a confident, independent Protestant queen whose secret gnawing anxiety is the matter of an heir to the throne – and who would be the man to make it happen.
The queue of likely suitors is led by a Spanish prince, son of Catholic King Philip II of Spain – but she knows he would replace her with the Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots (Samantha Morton) in those hotbed days of religious chicanery and intrigue.
Love or duty? That’s the dilemma when handsome, devil-may-care explorer Walter Raleigh (Clive Owen) returns from his travels to beguile his queen with stories of the New World – and we’re not just talking tobacco here (no snuff-movie jokes, please!).
He shows her a glimpse of a life she can never experience while she’s still on the throne.
Despite her fiery spirit, Elizabeth needs all the reassurance she can get from her courtiers (led by Geoffrey Rush as Sir Francis Walsingham), particularly when the Spanish Armada sets sail.
Director Shekhar Kapur gives us all we would expect in opulence and atmosphere, filling the screen with candle-lit corridors and soaring pillars to recreate the period in brilliant detail.
The chemistry between Cate and Clive is electric from the moment Raleigh famously throws his cloak across a puddle in front of the monarch, in performances reminiscent of the 1939 classic that starred Bette Davis and Errol Flynn.
Owen is full of charm and rugged masculinity, but the film belongs to Blanchett.
“I pretend there is a pane of glass between me and them,” she says, gesturing down at her assembled courtiers. “They can see me, but they cannot touch me.”
Exuding regal sex appeal, she evokes the loneliness of a woman hungry for the one thing she can never achieve in a role she has practically made her own.
Oscars, here we come!

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