Film festival juries, awards ceremony voters, and movie critics alike treated Dame Helen Mirren with such reverence for her nuanced performance of Elizabeth II in The Queen, it's almost as if she was a queen herself. Set during the time of Princess Diana's fatal car accident and her state funeral, Stephen Frears' picture, a combination of doc footage and quality melodrama, vacillates between the royal family, stoically downplaying the severity of the events, and Tony Blair, charismatically embracing the Britons' grief. Mirren won the Academy, BAFTA and Golden Globe awards for her humanizing portrayal of the Queen, and the film was an Oscar nominee for Best Picture, Directing, Original Screenplay, Original Score, and Costume Design. With James Cromwell.

Stephen Frears---Great Britain/France/Italy---2006---97 mins.

• Miramax
• Release Date: 04/24/2007
• Letterboxed