All Hail The Queen and Helen Mirren!

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Helen Mirren richly deserved the Oscar she received for starring in this week's DVD Tuesday pick, The Queen, but I was disappointed that her costar Michael Sheen wasn't even nominated. For my money, the only thing better than Peter Morgan's subtle, witty screenplay (which earned him an Oscar nomination; Morgan also scripted The Last King of Scotland, which earned Forest Whitaker his Oscar) was the sheer virtuosity with which Mirren and Sheen brought it to life. The Queen is a four-hander, and they're both brilliant.

Just in case you managed to sequester yourself in a mountain cave during awards season, the queen in question is HRH Elizabeth II, and the film is set in 1997. Specifically, Stephen Frears' restrained comedy of manners unfolds in the days following the death of "People's Princess" Diana Spencer, and carefully dissects the pas de deux between the queen, who embodies such traditional English virtues as rectitude, propriety and stoicism, and the country's brash new prime minister Tony Blair (Sheen), a media-savvy product of the post-WWII generation, married to an outspoken anti-royalist. As the British public and the world mourn the young, pretty former royal-by-marriage who brought a touch of American-style celebrity and emotional openness to the resolutely staid house of Windsor, the queen's stubborn refusal to join the public grief or make any official gesture on behalf of the royal family seems increasingly cold and arrogant. The gap between the grieving public and the poker-faced royals becomes so pronounced that tongues start wagging: Could this be the beginning of the end for the British monarchy?

I know how it sounds: I dragged my feet all the way to the screening. But the film is enthralling from start to finish, by turns biting, funny and poignant. The relationship between Mirren's coolly correct queen and Sheen's slick, opportunistic prime minister is a tour de force: Neither is a villain, neither a saint; They're both products of their upbringings and both true to their own perfectly reasonable ideals.

Things to consider:

Why are so many Americans fascinated by the British royal family? We are, after all, a nation that fought a bloody war to be free of English rule.

What's behind the conspicuous current fascination with princesses? It's not just the little girls badgering their parents for Disney princess movies and accessories - it's also grown women, who eagerly purchase chick-lit and chick flicks with Cinderella themes? Do you see a connection between that genre and the cult of Lady Diana?

What people speak of as traditional English values - keeping a stiff upper lip in the face of hardship, not airing personal problems in public - were once common in the U.S. as well. When and how did the "let it all hang out" ethos take over?

Previous DVD Tuesday blogs:

Expresso Bongo
I'm Not Scared
Shocking Grindhouse Double Bill! - Scanners and The Candy Snatchers
Don't Look Now
Re-Animator
Casino Royale
http:/ / community. tvguide. com/ thread. jspa? threadID= 800073953#comments"> Pi
The Prestige
13 Tzameti
The Departed
Suspiria
Kiss and Make Up
Kiss Me Deadly
The Long Good Friday
What Alice Found
The Devil's Backbone
The Descent
The Devil Wears Prada
Pandora's Box
The Thief and the Cobbler
Nashville
Panic in the Streets/Jack Palance Interview
The Pusher Trilogy
Scarface
Slither
Sunset Blvd.
In Cold Blood
Brick

Also: This week's new DVD releases