Precious is a new-style weepie but one that is much more bracing than depressing
Precious
Theatre
Ian McKellen is captivating throughout. He delights in the play’s gallows humour, yet is also maudlin and poignant
Waiting for Godot
Theatre
Slight quibbles notwithstanding, this will set the West End’s stock riding high
Enron
Utterly, utterly brilliant. You really are in for a treat
Though 'Trilogy' has won rave reviews, I personally found myself exasperated after about an hour
We went on a quiet sunday evening and the food was excellent, but the experience let down by the service and ambiance
London,
Evening Standard rating
Reader rating
Sumptuous: Cate Blanchett as Elizabeth I in Shekhar Kapur's new film
Already sporting a Venice Best Actress prize for I'm Not There, Cate Blanchett could well be competing with herself come the awards season, thanks to a bravura performance in Elizabeth: The Golden Age, directed (like its 1998 predecessor about the Virgin Queen) by Shekhar Kapur.
Striding through the film in a series of colour-coordinated outfits, Blanchett leaves no doubt as to who's in charge, be it in Elizabethan England or on the screen. Even so, her performance-is several notches below the general level of hysteria with which Kapur infuses the film, abetted by a score that has more soaring choral crescendos than an Eisteddfod.
This is not historical drama so much as heritage cinema for the North American market, replete with rolling English hills and soaring English cathedrals.
It is 1585. The Spanish Papists threaten Protestant England, whose Catholic minority seem ready to back Mary, Queen of Scots. Elizabeth, meanwhile, is still a virgin.
When Mary is executed for treason, the Spanish launch their Armada. History here is recast as ripping yarn: it is Sir Walter Raleigh, played dashingly by Clive Owen, who saves England by steering the fire ships in among the Spaniards, then swimming underwater to safety beneath a blazing sea.
Elsewhere, Owen trots gamely in Blanchett's wake (and, yes, he does throw down his cloak to protect her from a puddle).
Geoffrey Rush is wise and devious as the Queen's adviser Walsingham; Abbie Cornish adorably perky as a lady in waiting; and Samantha Morton is a very Scottish Mary who gets a nifty death scene. But they're no match for Blanchett, who tosses the film over her shoulder like one of her many sumptuous costumes.
Now statesmanlike, now vulnerable, now the mounted warrior queen (her silver armour is a sight to behold), she refutes singlehandedly the idea that they don't make 'em like this any more.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
Morning:
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