Sunday, January 11, 2009

ELIZABETH: THE GOLDEN AGE (Shekhar Kapur, 2007, UK) Superficial revisionist history: it makes for a rather dull dialogue heavy story though it’s eye-candy in High-Definition. Cate Blanchett and pals play dress-up and spout Shakespearean cliché-addled dialogue with the utmost sincerity. A story more about Elizabeth’s personal life than her role as Queen, which should be interesting but alas, this film rises no higher than its juvenile and condescending script. The cinematography is excellent though the editing is atrocious and distracting: just watch the “suitor-scene” and count the number of disorienting cuts in ten seconds…during a slowly paced conversation! This is only worth your time if you’ve exhausted everything in your queue and need to kill an hour and 45 minutes. On second thought, get that root canal you’ve been avoiding instead…it will be more enjoyable. (D)