Comment

Apr 23, 2019CaptainHecto rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
Good acting by the principals (and by Guy Pearce as Cecil) plus the costumes and cinematography make this worth watching. But the film is, of necessity, rushed; a six-episode series à la 'Wolf Hall' would have been the right vehicle for Mary Stuart's dramatic story. That said, the insurmountable drawback here is Beau Willimon's screenplay. Doubtless under Josie Rourke's baleful instructions, he has turned Mary's political challenge to Elizabeth into a melodrama about 'gender' (the 'sisterhood' of two strong women who find themselves 'alone' in a world of unfeeling, weak, bullying, untrustworthy men in black). This message is belabored throughout the film, but it peaks in the (apocryphal) meeting between Mary and Elizabeth, during which Saoirse Ronan and Margot Robbie are forced to utter one cringe-worthy line after another. If only Andrew Davies could have been parachuted in to rescue the film by rewriting the script from top to bottom!