The Queen (2006) Critic Reviews

A subtle, often very funny, ultimately touching tragedy of royal manners and meaning.Read the full review

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 the full review

The Queen is the kind of thought-provoking, well-written and savvy film that discerning filmgoers long for but rarely get.Read the full review

An absolute delight, combining the cheap thrills of a biopic with the gentler, but more lasting, pleasures of a brilliant character study.Read the full review

A sublimely nimble evisceration of that cult of celebrity known as the British royal family.Read the full review

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 the full review

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 the full review

Tradition and informality collide -- and mutually benefit -- in the deliciously written and expertly played The Queen.Read the full review

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 the full review