(1998) A queen's love could corrupt the soul of any man. If you think you've already seen enough about the Virgin Queen, Elizabeth I of England, on PBS and in theatres, I suggest you reconsider. Watch this lavishly photographed costume drama of picturesque and historical settings, like a gallery of luminous paintings, from director Shekhar Kapur with screenplay by Michael Hirst.

The early years of Queen Elizabeth's 45-year rule, during which she changed England's state religion from Roman Catholic to Protestant, begin in 1554, with her half-sister (both daughters of King Henry VIII) Mary on the throne. The life of Elizabeth (Cate Blanchett), daughter of Anne Boleyn, suspected of conspiring with Wyatt's rebellion, in addition to her heretical faith, hangs in the balance, though Mary, terminally ill, cannot bring herself to sign the death warrant.

Upon assuming the throne, the young queen is informed of the precarious state of affairs - an impecunious realm with an empty treasury, a navy in ruins, a weak army, and fragile fortresses under perilous circumstances of France and Scotland colluding to wage war against her while others internally covet her crown - and besieged by her advisors with entreaties to promptly pick a partner in marriage in order for there to be an heir.

Her most trusted friend, Lord Robert Dudley (Joseph Fiennes), Earl of Leicester, to whom she permits entry to the queen's quinny, tells her: "You are everything to me." Her ladies in waiting observe her fornicating within her bedchambers.

Returning from exile in France, Sir Francis Walsingham (Geoffrey Rush), an agnostic, provides wise counsel, but his view initially is in the minority. "I do not like wars," says Elizabeth: "They have uncertain outcomes." Nevertheless, a feeble force suffers a catastrophe of defeat in Scotland, embarrassing the monarch: "I have been proved unfit to rule."

In Scotland, Mary of Guise offers a truce in exchange for Elizabeth's agreeing to marry her nephew, the Duke of Anjou, who's not her type. Using her wiles to postpone matrimony, she employs her wit and scholarship, in conjunction with Walsingham's machinations, to persuade the bishops, who oppose her uncertain reign, to see her proposal for a single Church of England through the Act of Uniformity as common sense rather than heresy.

She survives attempted assassinations, behind which the Duke of Norfolk (Christopher Eccleston) is suspected. Monsignor Alvaro de la Quadra approaches the influential Lord Robert (lacking eligibility), who seeks some means of retaining his relationship with Elizabeth, with an arrangement of convenience - a political alliance with Spain's king through a marriage to Elizabeth in name only.

From Rome the Pope (John Gielgud) approves a plot against Elizabeth, sending a priest, John Ballard (Daniel Craig), with letters directing Catholics against allegiance to their queen. However, when the priest gives up names of those conspiring against her rule, deeply displeased by what she hears, she says: "A man will confess to anything under torture."

Remaking herself in the image of Christianity's Mary, the mother of Christ - "I have become a virgin" - Queen Elizabeth I chooses her groom.

Among those in her court with white ruffed collars, pourpoints, and fitted-to-the waist gowns with bustle and flowing skirts are Kat Ashley (Emily Mortimer) and Sir William (Richard Attenborough).

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Copyright © 2009 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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