Mary Queen of Scots
A weak historical piece with jaw-dropping visuals. - 5.5/10
by Francesco Bakhos - 365 Movies Lebanon
Who among us doesn't know Mary queen of Scots and her cousin Queen Elizabeth of England? The famous rival queens whom never seen eye to eye on anything and still managed to rule half of Europe in past centuries.
This movie is no different than all the previous movies, shows and books about these two historical figures. It centers around Mary Stuart's attempt to overthrow her cousin Elizabeth I, Queen of England, finds her condemned to years of imprisonment before facing execution.
I have to say, i dont know where i stand with Josie Rourke's version. For starters, Rourke managed to belittle this magnificent piece of history into a family drama with a dash of feminism on top. While everyone agrees that both queens had a rather great amount of achievements during their reign, this movie only focused on their rivalry and love life. Mary was pictured as a godess of love who's willing to go over and beyond to create a family and breed a successor while Elizabeth was shown as a selfish Virgin who only cared about power and war. With having feminism as theme, Rourke only cared to show the power of these two as dominant leads in a masculine world while having absolutely zero interest in showing us compassion and emotions.
To be totally honest, Mary and Elizabeth might as well be two of the world's most exciting figures but they weren't given justice, we've only seen one part of the coin (story). That's why we ended up with weak lead characters.
To continue, Saoirse Ronan was the perfect choice as queen Mary, her performance was powerful, to say the least. But i believe and because of her underdeveloped and somehow stereotyped character, she didn't reach her full potentials. But her boyish charisma saved the day. As for queen Elizabeth's Margot Robbie, now she's the true star of the movie. Having so little screen time, her intense and electrifying performance outshined everyone else in the movie. An absolute knockout.
But on the bright side, the set and the location were simply eye candy. So majestic and thats how they should be. In addition, the costumes, the makeup and the colors were seriously addictive. No wonder its nominated for best costume design at the Oscars.
At the end, Mary Queen of Scots is a weak historical piece with jaw-dropping visuals.
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