Mary, Queen of Scots (15.)
Directed by Josie Rourke.
Starring Saoirse Ronan, Margot Robbie, David Tennant, Jack Lowden, Gemma Chan, Guy Pearce. 124 mins.
I like a film with a happy ending and this film concludes with (and begins with - so no spoiler) the execution of a would be Queen. Nothing against Mary QOS, but after seeing this film I'm inclined to feel that in the matter of royalty, the fewer the better.
Mary (Ronan) turns up in Protestant Scotland aged 18, the Catholic widow of a French King with her bevvy of catholic handmaids and immediately swans around like she owns the place, announcing Je Suis Une Reine de Jockland. A bit surprisingly the locals fall in line with this.
The script constructs a parallel between Mary and Queen Elizabeth (Robbie); that they are both strong women struggling against the patriarchy. Down south a pasty-faced Elizabeth is having to suppress her feminity to hold onto the crown. In the highlands, wilful Mary ploughs ahead with her claim to be the rightful heir to the British throne and marries a gay English lord (Lowden, who looks like a Chippendale Simon Pegg) in furtherance of it. She alienates almost everybody in the process, most particularly a dour Protestant pastor (Tenant) who is like a Scottish Rasputin - he has a long beard, hates sex and has the socially progressive views of Ian Paisley. Madam cares not a jot because the throne is her birthright and she has been chosen by God.
The film has all the usual costume drama virtues of fine acting and beautiful scenery but it does have a problem in that the mechanics of the plot – the machinations of power and the arguments over the merits of succession claims – are both too convoluted and ultimately a little bit too boring to compel. The script tries desperately to hold back on exposition but it can't find an adequate substitute.
The casting of Rowan and Robbie as two rulers imposed on their countries by divine providence seems appropriate as both are performers whose stardom has struck me as having been imposed upon audiences rather than earned. Still, I can't deny that both are quite magnificent here. Ronan can really stare down a camera, while Robbie's Elisabeth is like Bonham-Carter's Queen of Hearts in Alice In Wonderland given a tragic dimension. Their struggles to rule over courts made up solely of men is supposed to be what gives the film contemporary relevance but I think it is the vision of a high handed ruling class that thinks only of its own self-interest and believes that they rule by divine right that is the most compelling modern-day parallel. Watching all these selfish, ambitious people conniving to get power for themselves without a thought for the people they are supposed to represent was a little too close to home. Off with their heads, the lot of them.
Directed by Josie Rourke.
Starring Saoirse Ronan, Margot Robbie, David Tennant, Jack Lowden, Gemma Chan, Guy Pearce. 124 mins.
I like a film with a happy ending and this film concludes with (and begins with - so no spoiler) the execution of a would be Queen. Nothing against Mary QOS, but after seeing this film I'm inclined to feel that in the matter of royalty, the fewer the better.
Mary (Ronan) turns up in Protestant Scotland aged 18, the Catholic widow of a French King with her bevvy of catholic handmaids and immediately swans around like she owns the place, announcing Je Suis Une Reine de Jockland. A bit surprisingly the locals fall in line with this.
The script constructs a parallel between Mary and Queen Elizabeth (Robbie); that they are both strong women struggling against the patriarchy. Down south a pasty-faced Elizabeth is having to suppress her feminity to hold onto the crown. In the highlands, wilful Mary ploughs ahead with her claim to be the rightful heir to the British throne and marries a gay English lord (Lowden, who looks like a Chippendale Simon Pegg) in furtherance of it. She alienates almost everybody in the process, most particularly a dour Protestant pastor (Tenant) who is like a Scottish Rasputin - he has a long beard, hates sex and has the socially progressive views of Ian Paisley. Madam cares not a jot because the throne is her birthright and she has been chosen by God.
The film has all the usual costume drama virtues of fine acting and beautiful scenery but it does have a problem in that the mechanics of the plot – the machinations of power and the arguments over the merits of succession claims – are both too convoluted and ultimately a little bit too boring to compel. The script tries desperately to hold back on exposition but it can't find an adequate substitute.
The casting of Rowan and Robbie as two rulers imposed on their countries by divine providence seems appropriate as both are performers whose stardom has struck me as having been imposed upon audiences rather than earned. Still, I can't deny that both are quite magnificent here. Ronan can really stare down a camera, while Robbie's Elisabeth is like Bonham-Carter's Queen of Hearts in Alice In Wonderland given a tragic dimension. Their struggles to rule over courts made up solely of men is supposed to be what gives the film contemporary relevance but I think it is the vision of a high handed ruling class that thinks only of its own self-interest and believes that they rule by divine right that is the most compelling modern-day parallel. Watching all these selfish, ambitious people conniving to get power for themselves without a thought for the people they are supposed to represent was a little too close to home. Off with their heads, the lot of them.
