Elizabeth (1998)

Here’s a film that could have been much more than an overly dramatized silly historical fiction. Shekhar Kapur’s directing is very shaky and his attempts to make things look interesting instead of presenting them as they are utterly detracts from the substance that could have been. Then we have Joe Fiennes steely-gazing at the camera for the first two-thirds of the film before the major plot-hole/line turn him into a simpering psychotic. Then enter Daniel Craig and his gangster walk, entering the Queen’s palace no-holds bar. The feigned brutality to wake up the audience and gain some sort of sympathy fails to accomplish just that. Cate Blanchette, Geoffrey Rush, Richard Attenborough, and a few others keep this moving from falling apart completely. In spite of this, my hopes for the sequel remain high.

Gangster walk available at the 3:50 mark:

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