A Royal Year

You didn't think I'd not seen it, did you? Five times--and counting--as of yesterday. These are the thoughts I shared with Peggy last October--I all but ran to Regal South Beach, and did the extraordinary (even for me): I saw it twice in one day!

Blame it on my paternal great-grandmother, Charlotte, who--according to my mother--assiduously followed the Almanack of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha:

...saw The Queen twice! You know I'm a die-hard Royalist, P. Can't say enough about it, except that there must be some truth behind it, if Ingrid Seward (Editor, Majesty Magazine) & Robert Lacey (Royal biographer) were listed in the credits. Steven Frears (My Beautiful Laundrette; most recently, Mrs. Henderson Presents) directed this "pseudo" documentary/biopic about one of the pivotal triangles in modern British Royal history: Diana; Tony Blair; and...The Queen. "Can we save these people from themselves?" wails the Prime Minister at one point. According to the movie, he did an interesting turn-around, ending up in awe of the monarchy, as his wife, Cherie, pointedly remarks all Labor Prime Ministers have done. This is due, in no small measure, to...The Queen. And as Helen Mirren portrays her...Ms. Mirren also portrayed Elizabeth I in a highly-acclaimed HBO miniseries this past season that garnered its fair share of Emmys. Will she now add Oscar to her shelf? I think she stands more than a fighting chance.

As you can well imagine, I could have gone on and on, minutely dissecting the whole thing, separating fact from fiction (or attempting to do so, anyway). It was extraordinary: I couldn't leave South Beach without seeing it again. In between, though, I did see Catch A Fire, about a freedom fighter in South Africa; the Boer who catches him; and how justice is ultimately served, just this side of revenge. More understated--and restrained--than The Last King of Scotland. Royals; freedom movements, both botched and successful, in Africa (add a third, in the form of Blood Diamond); and unsolved Hollywood mysteries (Hollywoodland; The Black Dahlia): everything seems to come in twos, during this, the cinematic Noah's Ark of 2006.

New, wide-awake thoughts, as of yesterday: given that Peter Morgan (the screenwriter) so publicly berated Her Majesty during the Globes; given the telling (?) body language, let alone the dialogue--which, even to my novice cinematic-savvy mind--implied that Morgan and Frears worked in tandem...Well, dare I assume that they're as torn as the Prime Minister in their wavering affections toward their sovereign?

I tried to find if I wrote any more about Forest Whitaker's portrayal of Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland--as you can tell by now, my "reviews" this past year were sometimes sketchy, at best. It was riveting; compelling; and gruesome, all rolled up into one. Not overly keen on international affairs in my early twenties, I, nonetheless, found him fascinating, and repulsive: perhaps he struck a Caribbean-related chord in my more often than not Cuban heart? Just as Jamie Foxx with Ray; and Eddie Murphy with James Brown; Forest Whitaker "channeled" Idi Amin. As for what Helen Mirren did with both Elizabeths? Nothing short of extraordinary.
Both the Globe--and the Oscar--for both of them, I strongly predict.