Front Page, Industry News

Di lovers, monarchists in full force at opening day of ‘The Queen’

TORONTO (CP) _ It’s been close to a decade since Princess Diana died, but Beverly Harris still has a Diana pillow on her couch and a Diana calendar on her wall.

"I just loved her _ she was so special," Harris said Friday after taking in the Canadian opening of "The Queen," the critically acclaimed new film about Queen Elizabeth’s initial refusal to publicly respond to the sudden death of Diana in a Paris car crash in 1997.

Harris, a retired doctor who would describe herself only as "almost as old as the Queen," was one of hundreds of people who packed two downtown theatres on a workday afternoon to take in the film starring Helen Mirren in a performance being touted as a shoo-in for an Oscar nod.

Crowds lined up outside the Cumberland Theatre for an hour before the screenings, with one ticket-taker saying he’d rarely seen the venue so packed on a Friday afternoon.

While there were no Union Jacks being waved among the movie-goers, the theatre was clearly crammed with people who knew their Royal Family as they giggled knowingly at the many "inside details" the film purports to reveal about life within the palace walls.

The Queen dissing her sister, the Queen Mother sipping a martini before noon, a constantly wincing Prince Charles living in almost never-ending terror that someone is trying to assassinate him, Prince Philip’s insistence that his grandsons simply needed to gun down some stags on the Scottish highlands to cope with the death of their beloved mother: all of it delighted the audience.

"I loved it; it was smart and moving and beautifully acted," said Kerry Radke, 54. "I’m going home to have a big cup of tea."

Radke fully admitted to being fascinated by the Royal Family and therefore determined to catch the opening day of "The Queen."

"My dad was British, and my grandparents were very British so I grew up with all the tea and all that stuff and anything to do with the Queen, I’d come out to see," she said.

The movie is indeed a masterful retelling of how newly elected Prime Minister Tony Blair, played brilliantly by Michael Sheen, finally convinces the reluctant Queen to return to London from Scotland in the days following Diana’s death and address her grief-stricken and increasingly angry subjects.

As the ordeal unfolds, a relationship of mutual respect and affection develops between Elizabeth, who initially treats her new prime minister as a bothersome rookie, and Blair, whose wife describes him as going "gaga" over the Queen as he comes to get to know her and understand why she viewed Diana as being so damaging to the institution to which she’d devoted her life.

It’s a film that’s been eagerly anticipated by Mirren fans, monarchists and those who still believe Diana "got royally screwed" in the words of one audience member, 79-year-old Noreen Smith.

Andrew Ellsworth, editor-in-chief of Monarchy.ca _ dubbed the unofficial website of the "Canadian monarchy" _ says he’s deeply disappointed he’ll have to wait until November before the film is shown in Moncton.

"Everyone is excited about this movie," he said Friday. "I think it reminds us that Her Majesty is a real person who faces tragedy and hard times like the rest of us. This film supposedly highlights that unique ability of our Canadian Queen, who has given us a life of service over the past 50 years while constantly adapting to changing times yet still providing us with a sense of tradition, dignity, and continuity."