Rating: 3.75 of 5  

I liked this movie a lot. It has it’s flaws, it’s choppy, jumping from scene to scene with little fluidity. The conspiracy is muddled and still scarce. It never fully feels like it has the flesh on its bones enough to be intriguing or generate a sense of immediacy and danger.

But Elizabeth is fascinating. Cate Blanchett brings to life this woman of such strength and power who is conflicted and afraid and doubts herself. It’s amazing to watch a woman with such a steadfast persona be tossed like a ship in a storm. I loved it and I loved her.
Clive Owen and Beth were good too, and necessary but this was Elizabeth’s story.

The writing is a difficult combination of really good lines and convoluted plot. Really, though, some of the dialoge was so wonderful.

We mortals have many weaknesses. We feel too much, hurt too much. All too soon we die. But we do have the chance of love.

Walsingham: I confine myself to the possible.
Elizabeth: That’s where you and I differ, Walsingham. I find the impossible far more interesting.

Elizabeth: May we have wisdom not to fear shadows in the night, and courage when the day of danger truly dawns.

Elizabeth: I fear neither him nor his priests nor his armies… I too can command the wind sir. I have a hurricane in me that will strip Spain bare if you dare to try me.

Raleigh: Since when were you so afraid?

Raleigh: Kill a queen and all queens are mortal.

This much I know: when the storm breaks each man acts in accordance with his own nature. Some are dumb with terror, some flee, some hide, and some spread their wings like eagles and soar upon the wind.

And I loved the music. It’s one of those soundtracks I haven’t stopped listening to since I got it. Although, I did add ‘My Name is Lincoln’ from The Island soundtrack, which is the phenomenal song used in the trailer.

And normally I’m not a ‘jump on the feminism band wagon’ kind of girl. But talking about her afterward made me realize how few woman on film or tv are portrayed with that sort of strength or power or grace or influence or any of it. How rarely a story centers around a woman at all like that at all. or portrays her with a sort of honesty or authenticity rather than being a bitch or high strung or some other one or two dimensional cliche.
Do we really live in that much of a man’s world that it’s so hard for our media to understand women enough to portray them admirably? Probably not, but it feels like it today.

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