By Ed Koch
“Elizabeth: The Golden Age” (-)
This is one of the most boring movies you will ever see.
The picture recounts the period of Queen Elizabeth’s (Cate Blanchett) middle age and the Spanish Armada sailing against England to wrest control of the kingdom from the Protestant Queen Elizabeth and turn it over to the Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots (Samantha Morton). It boggles one’s mind how such an exciting story could be so uninterestingly portrayed, but it happens in this film.
The costumes are stunning, but the dialogue is often sophomoric and the acting is never more than adequate and often less than so. Blanchett magnificently portrayed Elizabeth I of England in the 1998 movie “Elizabeth,” for which she received an Academy Award nomination. Her performance as Elizabeth in this picture, however, is surprisingly tepid. Her address to the troops preparing for battle is on a par with a less-than-gifted high school actress.
Elizabeth Throckmorton, as the Queens’s lady-in-waiting, is nothing to write home about and Geoffrey Rush gives a disappointing performance as Sir Francis Walsingham. Regrettably, he dies very late in the movie. A little earlier might have reduced the tedium. In his portrayal of Sir Walter Raleigh, the English-born actor, Clive Owen, disconcertingly sounds American in his accented English. The only decent performance was that of Mary, Queen of Scots’ jailer. Regrettably, his name was not cited in any of the reviews I read so I am not able to credit him by name.
An extraordinary opportunity was fritted away in “Elizabeth, the Golden Age,” and it is upsetting to me that the movie was so mangled.
“Sleuth” (+)
The two characters in this film are Andrew Wyke (Michael Caine), an older well-known writer and cuckold husband of a woman having an affair with Milo Tindle (Jude Law), a male hairdresser/actor who is much younger than her husband. Directed by Kenneth Branagh, this movie is a remake of the 1972 film starring Laurence Olivier as Andrew and Michael Caine as Milo. It was also a Broadway play in 1970 which I saw.
The plot is simple and at the same time contrived. In the first act, Milo appears at the home of the couple and introduces himself to Andrew who invites him inside. Their discussion is primarily an oral duel discussing the wife/mistress, depending on who is speaking. Their words are uttered in staccato fashion and fired faster than a machine gun. People don’t normally speak that way, but their words in this scene, created by Harold Pinter’s screenplay, are like poetry.
I won’t describe the second act for fear of ruining its surprise, but I will tell you that it will shock and delight you.
The third act juxtaposes the two men in their repartee. While Andrew dominated in the first act, Milo takes over in this one.
Caine and Law both give superb performances. The description tour de force is used more than warranted when describing good acting, but in this case the term is warranted. The fascinating script and even more fascinating performances add up to a film worth seeing.
HS said: “This is a really good movie. Of course, it couldn’t be real. People don’t talk and act that way about important matters, not even smart Brits. But the film is so well done that, for a while, the audience wants to be part of their world, or at least look into it more closely. I’d love to see it on a double bill with Michael Caine playing the young man, and Sir Laurence the novelist. ‘Sleuth’ is a gem, and the 37 years since it was first written don’t seem to have hurt it at all.”
