by MATTHEW HAYS

By now, everyone has heard about Helen Mirren’s incredible performance in The Queen, in which she plays the current British monarch with depth and integrity. The great thing about her performance, it will duly be noted come Oscar season, is the way in which she portrays Liz critically and sympathetically at once. No mere caricature, Mirren takes this public figure into complex, contradictory territory.

But it would be a mistake to reduce The Queen to a showcase for the actors involved. Yes, there is a great ensemble here; while Mirren is getting a lot of attention, the surrounding cast are equally awesome, including James Cromwell’s Prince Philip and Michael Sheen’s Tony Blair (though Sheen’s teeth are a distraction, as they are so much better than Blair’s).

What screenwriter Peter Morgan and director Stephen Frears are representing is far more than a royal comedy of manners. They are also depicting what many saw as a point in British history when the entire nation’s psyche appeared to be shifting. The Queen focuses on the death of Princess Diana in the now-famous car accident. That moment played itself out, well, like a movie. Hugely popular princess falls out of favour with royal family, has affair—with Arab millionaire heir, no less—and is then literally killed by the media (or so it seemed). Would this emotionally wrenching moment finally tear down the British stiff upper lip once and for all?

The film depicts the Queen as a well-meaning but hopelessly out-of-touch monarch. When Di kicks off, the family is seen as cold and detached. When it’s suggested that a state funeral is in order, the Queen coolly replies that since Di was no longer a member of the royal family, a private funeral is the right thing to do. Di’s popularity rises, as often happens when a public figure dies, while the royal family’s poll numbers plummet. The Queen, and with her the entire royal family, are finally seen as vulnerable.

What’s best about The Queen is that it avoids easy shots. The filmmakers and Mirren do not vilify the monarch; on the contrary, and to their credit, they humanize her.

The Queen opens Friday, Oct. 20

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