Historical dramas always seem to appeal to a British audience, for any number of reasons - certainly they’re something the UK film industry has always done well, though perhaps it has as much to do with a degree of jingoistic pride in our island’s sometimes dubious but always eventful past. But more than many similar films, the first Elizabeth seemed to strike a chord, not only in Britain but elsewhere as well. It even proved profitable enough to warrant a sequel - though - given how absurd that notion seems - perhaps continuation is a better word. Certainly The Golden Age feels as though it picks up directly from the end of Elizabeth, even if that continuity doesn’t fit too well with established facts.
Apparently Cate Blanchett was always on board with the idea of a second film, and the only reason for the considerable wait was her insistence on being a suitable age to play the Elizabeth of the script. It’s a nice idea, scuppered slightly by the fact that Blanchett is in her thirties, while Elizabeth was in her fifties when the events of the film occurred. Unfortunately for anyone who worries about such things, this level of inaccuracy is more the rule than the exception. Frequently The Golden Age offers little more than a veneer of history, and much of that anecdotal and oversimplified.
This Hollywoodisation of history has left its sticky fingerprints pretty much everywhere. We have a slightly kinky love triangle between Elizabeth, her companion, and piratical Walter Raleigh, played with perpetual smugness by Clive Owen. We have a thoroughly booable villain in the shape of bandy-legged goth Philip of Spain, accompanied by his creepy infant daughter (in reality in her twenties at this point) and the evil Catholic hordes, who want to take everyone’s religious liberty away, and torture god-fearing Christians. We even have, in one really cringe-inducing sequence, Clive Owen single-handedly taking out the Spanish Armada by going all John McClane on their asses with a burning ship.
As history it’s all quite rubbish, in places very silly and offensive if you happen to be Spanish, Catholic or generally aren’t convinced that Elizabeth was the greatest monarch to have ever lived. But as a populist interpretation of what history might have been like if it had just been a lot cooler and more exciting, it’s absorbing and mostly fun. It’s also extravagantly beautiful in its sets, clothing, hairstyles and furnishings, perhaps the lushest film since Curse of the Golden Flower. With Remi Adefarasin’s sumptuous cinematography and director Kapur’s engaging direction, The Golden Age often looks beautiful enough to divert you from how much it’s mangling the past.
What really saves it, however, is the acting. Almost everyone is very good, with a returning Geoffrey Rush as excellent as ever, and Samantha Morton giving a moving, complex performance that rescues Mary Stuart from being just another villainous Catholic. But as with the first Elizabeth, it’s Blanchett who shines, giving dimension to her character as both a larger than life monarch and a flawed human being. Largely thanks to her, The Golden Age is often intelligent as a study of power with all its pitfalls, and of the kind of isolation and pressure that would drive most of us insane. So while the original Elizabeth may have balanced reality and dramatic necessity much better, if you can put that aside you’ll likely enjoy The Golden Age, pop history and all.
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