The main men in the story are Elizabeth's consort Robert Dudley, played by Joe Alwyn (after The Sense of an Ending he was in The Favourite, though I failed to mention it); Mary's Lord Darnley, played by Jack Lowden (he appeared in '71, A United Kingdom, Denial, and Dunkirk but I'm writing about him for the first time now); David Rizzio, Mary's close friend and favorite fiddler, played by Ismael Cruz Córdova (five episodes of The Good Wife and three of The Catch); and William Cecil, Elizabeth's "work wife," played by Guy Pearce (most recently in these pages for Iron Man 3). I stared at Darnley's father Matthew Stuart, trying to figure out where I'd seen him before, until it finally came to me: Brendan Coyle was in 52 episodes of Downton Abbey as butler John Bates.
Apparently there are many historical inaccuracies in this movie. The two queens' meeting is in the trailer, and most of the movie builds up to that moment. Yet many historians vehemently state that they never met in person. Attending each queen are several people of color and an Asian person or two. That was unlikely to have happened. And, on a lighter note, though I quite liked Mary's five hoops in her right ear and the unmatched dangle in her left, it's improbable as well. Here's an amusing article about the inaccuracies. The writer mentions Ronan's carefully cultivated Scottish accent (she's actually Irish) and pooh-poohs it. There is a dalliance, however, that I won't give away (this spoiler-filled article does) that historians agree may have happened.
Celebrated British stage director Josie Rourke makes her film debut, working from a screenplay written by Beau Willimon (Oscar nominated for co-writing The Ides of March and wrote 73 episodes of House of Cards) and based on the 2004 book by John Guy.
The costumes designed by Alexandra Byrne (covered in the Murder on the Orient Express remake) and the hair and makeup are quite wonderful and should get recognized when the Oscar nominations come out January 23. The movie's only recognition on my list of nominations and wins so far is a SAG nomination for Robbie as Best Supporting Actress.
Max Richter's (last blogged for scoring The Sense of an Ending) classical soundtrack can be streamed on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Music. Jack just walked by as I was writing and said, about the music, "That sounds serious!"
Rotten Tomatoes' critics are not losing their heads over this, averaging a weak 62%, and its audiences like it even less at 43. But we thought it worth seeing.
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