"Elizabeth" is a very dark, shadowy movie that owes more to "The Godfather" than the usual array of costume dramas. The role of "Elizabeth" can easily be compared to "Michael Corleone" in every way. If I were to make any more comparisons to the two, I'd spoil a lot. Just making the "Michael Corleone" comparison gave away most of the movie, so I'll stop right there.
So Geoffrey Rush plays "Luca Brasi." OOPS!! I mean, Geoffrey Rush plays "Sir Francis Walsingham," a really sinister guy who may or may not be the only one that "Elizabeth" should trust. He's a great character in the movie, and Geoffrey Rush plays him very well.
"Elizabeth" was written by Michael Hirst, whose prior work I've never seen, but "The Ballad of the Sad Cafe" and "The Deceivers" both sound pretty familiar. The director is Shekhar Kapur, a filmmaker from India who I've never heard of, but I KNOW we'll be hearing a lot more from him in the future. This guy is GOOD! He made a movie that coulda easily been too slow-moving, but instead, he made it quite the opposite.
There was something that I had a problem with, though. They modernized it a bit, which is fine. They rewrote history just a tad, and again, that's fine. But I really don't think that anyone ever said "up yours" in the 16th century.
There are
several Oscar nominations that should come outta this movie, but the one
that I'd really like to see is Cate Blanchett for Best Actress. She was
phenomenal. As for people who could care less about costume dramas, cast
the ignorance aside and see this movie. I promise, you'll thank me for it.