MovieChat Forums > Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007) Discussion > 6/10. Here's why:

6/10. Here's why:

posted 8 years ago by IMDB_Vits
1 reply | jump to latest

ELIZABETH wasn’t labeled as a romantic movie because the title character's dilemma on who she should marry was directly related to the conflict of her country. That’s not the case with ELIZABETH PART 2: THE GOLDEN AGE, so her love triangle with WALTER RALEIGH and BESS (her lady-in-waiting) feels out of place with the rest, which does work as a historical drama. What made Cate Blanchett’s performance in the 1st installment so outstanding was her ability to convey layers of emotions with very little. This time, she seems to be too concentrated on her expressions and gestures, which is why her performance is just OK. However, because of how the rest of the cast (specially Samantha Morton, who seems to have the same focus Blanchett has) is, it could be director Shekhar Kapur’s fault. What a waste of Geoffrey Rush! The DVD has a couple of deleted scenes showing WALSINGHAM talking to certain characters. It's most likely that they were cut because they weren’t 100% needed to advance the plot. That may be true, but he barely did anything in the final product. Was he included in the script just because in real life he was there? Nah! Watching both movies makes it clear that the makers weren’t very worried about historical accuracy.

You can read comments of other movies (including the 1st installment) at http://vits-ingthemovies.blogspot.cl/2016/02/comments-round-up-january-2016.html

Any thoughts?

[–] TerryRome01 8 years ago

Yes, agreed. However, to make a fully dementional woman especially as privileged as they were to 2 films, one has to examine every side to her personality. Now, pay attention to what the reviewer said about the pros of the film: it wasn't a love story, so Cate gave an outstanding performance considering they touched on pretty much everything (external) during the first film. Now, if you're going to have a gift of an additional 2 extra hours of film, I say examine ALL of Elizabeth's feelings; off all that shaped her then and later.
No thorough portrait would be truly complete without exploring two crucial themes to her life, reign and as a woman - her love life (or at least a potential or denied love), and something everyone faces sooner or later, and that's aging. And for Elizabeth, a woman in a man's job who already sees love as a weakness but her femininity as both weakness and strength. Well, her portrait would not be full without delving into another potential weakness creeping up as the road block to her Golden Age rule: getting older, losing youth and femininity, effectively weakening her. And that is precisely what Khapur and Cate studied and showed in the Second Film. And that's what made Blanchett's performance here much more than ok. 'Something has weakened you my child' as the Astrologer said. It had: the unexpected effects (physically and emotionally) of aging and Elizabeth's one last flirtation with the possibility of love, before the inevitable change of age brings, whose rapid currents she is now acutely aware of. That is what Cate masterfully brought to life. Alas, it isn't as clearly spelled out as the external factors of her adolescent reign had brought.