Stories of English royalty have always been fodder for the movies. After all, history gives us an endless supply of murder, intrigue and geo-political backstabbing, and the Brits have been more colorful than most.
“Elizabeth: The Golden Age” is a follow-up to the 1998 success, “Elizabeth,” a breakthrough movie for Cate Blanchett. It proves that there’s plenty of juice in retelling history, yet somehow this movie tries too hard to convince us.
Blanchett is back as Elizabeth I, the steel-willed Virgin Queen. We begin in 1585, with Elizabeth juggling worries about assassination plots, her cousin Mary, Queen of Scots (Samantha Morton), and rumblings of war with Spain.
And then there’s her love life. This is a movie, not a history lesson, people.
In this installment of Elizabeth’s saga, she quickens to the roguish attentions of Walter Raleigh (Clive Owen), who’s just returned from harvesting tobacco in the New World. Raleigh has enough male charisma to enchant the queen and her attendant (Abbie Cornish).
What comes of all this is quite a bit of hoo-hah, some of it entertaining. Director Shekhar Kapur, who also did the first “Elizabeth” movie, takes a broad brush to the material; this is not a subtle movie.
It relies on its sumptuous sets, a fun computer-generated rendering of the approach of the Spanish Armada and star power. For the latter, the film mostly has Cate Blanchett flashing her eyes and her cheekbones, both of which are aimed with deadly accuracy.
Morton is excellent in her scenes as Mary, and Geoffrey Rush returns to duty as the queen’s counselor. And even though Clive Owen has a distinctly modern style as Raleigh, he manages to be entirely believable as both a 16th-century pirate and a sex object.
Along with its florid style, “Elizabeth” has a dismissive attitude toward history. For the purposes of the movie, it’s enough that we understand that the Spanish Catholics were nutty and wore black. The movie’s English characters are much more attractive.
So, a rather silly enterprise. You’ll probably have more fun reading a good leather-bound book about the English royal family than actually sitting through this exaggerated view of history.
“Elizabeth: The Golden Age”
Royal license: Cate Blanchett returns to the role of England’s Virgin Queen, this time facing down the threat of the Spanish Armada and — of course — an assault on her heart. The latter comes from Walter Raleigh (Clive Owen). The movie takes a broad approach to history, dumping subtlety in favor of sumptuous sets and heavy breathing.
Rating: PG-13 for violence
Now showing: Alderwood, Everett, Galaxy Monroe, Mountlake Terrace, Oak Tree, Pacific Place, Seven Gables, Woodinville, Cascade Mall
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