Elizabeth, The Golden Age (2007)

Elizabeth, The Golden Age is the worst directed movie that I have seen this year. Only an inept director could take three of the best actors in England, and make the story of one of most interesting times of English history boring. OMG, this is a very big budget film, and it feels like it was put together by a 12 year old. The score is so over the top, it is annoying. Watching this you feel like you are missing the emotional story because you can’t believe the filmmaker could get it so wrong. There are long sequences where you wonder, what was THAT about. There is a long bath scene with Elizabeth that goes on so long that you wonder if some more is going to happen, like a lesbian scene. Nothing happens! It just lags.

The movie stars Cate Blanchette, who I think is a brilliant actress, and she is brilliant as always. She shines on the screen. She plays this role again, as this is a sequel, but even she can not save it. Clive Owen, England’s coolest actor, is positioned like a bland male interest in some generic chick-flick. Geoffrey Rush does his thing too. All are competent and give interesting performances. In fact, the actors are great.

The pacing is just off. The score made getting a drink of water into an emotional moment. The camera work was just irritating. Sometimes there would be circular camera movements that would just repeat until you get dizzy from the spinning.

Now, I am all for England. I have been there many times and I have British friends, but the night and day depicting of the English vs. The Spanish reminded me too much of the G.I. Joe cartoon from the mid-80’s.

More about the camera, the color tinted is reminiscent of a bad 70’s movie you might have caught on TV on a Saturday afternoon in the 80’s and will never see the light of day since. Even the colors were boring in this film.


Elizabeth, The Golden Age could be greatly improved by a re-edit and a re-scoring. Some producer should have seen the dailies and fired the director, Shehkar Kapur. Walking out of the film, you feel it is two hours of your life that you want back.