"Elizabeth: The Golden Age"

"Elizabeth: The Golden Age" is a historically inaccurate mess of a costume drama with the emphasis on costume.

Although much has been made of Cate Blanchett's performance in this film (it's been nominated for an Oscar, for heaven's sake, and praised to the hilt), I think it was a mistake for her to portray Elizabeth as more of hungry virgin woman than a royal virgin queen. The movie takes place in 1585 when Elizabeth was 52 years old. Blanchett does not look like or act like anyone over the age of 30 in this film.

She is, of course, a Protestant queen, beset on all sides by Catholic usurpers. Across the seas, there's King Philip II (Jordi Molla) of Spain who is ridding his country of all its trees to build a mighty armada with which to conquer England. Then there's the imprisoned Mary Queen of Scots (Samantha Morton) who plots to assassinate Elizabeth and assume the throne herself.

Luckily for Elizabeth, Walter Raleigh (Clive Owen) has returned from the New World bearing gifts of potatoes and tobacco just in time to bring out the romantic yearnings in the queen, yearnings, of course, that can never be realized. (If they had been realized, Raleigh would have had to come up with a new name for the place he landed in the new world.) However, in the film, Raleigh does command the British fleet in a stunning defeat of the Spanish Armada, even though history tells us the real Raleigh never set foot on a ship during this battle.

Although Blanchett has received all the accolades, my favorite performance in the film comes from Geoffrey Rush as Elizabeth's trusted Sir Francis Walsingham. Rush plays him as a man of many dimensions. He is loyal to a fault, but has no compunctions about resorting to barbaric torture to get what he wants. Is a hero? Is he a villain? The genious of Rush's performance he is shows us both without ever forcing us to decide.

The film, of course, is a continuation of director Shekhar Kapur's "Elizabeth," which was much more alive and witty than this treatment. This time a luscious screenplay has been sacrificed for luscious sets and costumes.

Grade: D-