Word: blanchett
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...takes the emoting-from-the-eyes technique to another level. The director of each film takes advantage of this tremendous asset with gigantic loving close-ups, making his eyes at least three feet long on the silver screen. When he looks at his lady loves, Gwyneth Paltrow or Cate Blanchett, it is certainly with the utmost sincerity and pathos. A cheap Hollywood trick or some darn good acting? It's up to you to decide...
...Elizabeth, which traces the early bumps of the title character's Golden Age reign, Fiennes takes a backseat to the Virgin Queen, Cate Blanchett. Again, Fiennes the philanderer takes on the guise of a lovesick puppy who sacrifices everything for his one true thing. His passionate declarations of loyalty play off nicely against the sweet princess turned ice queen. The cinematographic cop-outs distract from the fluidity of the film, as does the production design, which uses color and shadow to beat the symbolic dead horse. That's the curse of the artsy indie, I guess. The film does have...
...film which is trying to reach out beyondthe frock film crowd--with war scenes that aretruly bloody, a Byzantine political atmosphere aslurid and conspiratorial as our own and a gleamingfeminist jewel in the center of the spectacle--itsElizabeth is decidedly archaic. Despite theexcellent work of Cate Blanchett, who resemblesthe real Queen Elizabeth to an astonishing degree,her character is seldom as active, charismatic andcomplex as the historical queen must have been.Perhaps if the film's plotting were lessconvoluted, perhaps if Blanchett's Elizabeth weremore appealing, perhaps if we saw Elizabethstruggle more with her own sovereignty, the filmmight truly give...
...from the shadow of its most prominent artistic antecedent: The Godfather. In this sequence, we watch as Elizabeth rewrites history, beginning her speech halting and uncertain, and slowly coming into her own as a power broker. This, finally, is a display of the allure of power at its best--Blanchett's charisma becomes palpable, blazing, a force to be reckoned with...
...Blanchett at the end of the film, martyred tothe state as the Virgin Queen, is not a grandpoignant enigma, but merely the astute resolutionto give the people of England the ruler theydesire...