Movie Review: Mary Queen of Scots
2.5/5
After the death of her husband, King Francis II of France, Mary (Saoirse Ronan), just eighteen, returns to Scotland. She’s a Catholic and is fighting the Protestant factions in her kingdom. She believes having a child will not only subdue them, it will also make her claim on the throne of England that much more concrete as the English queen, Elizabeth (Margot Robbie) remains a virgin. She gets pregnant by her second husband, Lord Darnley (Jack Lowden), though he’s actually gay and in love with the court minstrel Rizzio (Ismael Cruz Cordova). Being a queen isn’t easy and Mary is surrounded by traitors from all sides. She faces rebellion from her own half-brother The Earl Of Moray (James McArdle), who gets the English to aid him bring out her downfall. The Reformist priest John Knox (David Tennant) too is against her and spreads vitriol whenever possible. Elizabeth too conspires against her as she’s advised to do so by her courtiers. Mary manages to outsmart her opponents for a while but later, thanks to the treachery of her third husband, Earl of Bothwell (Martin Compston) she is made to fled to England when she lives the rest of her life in prison before being sentenced to death by Elizabeth on charges of treason.Based on John Guy’s biography of the same name the film is more of an imagined account of Mary’s life and puts more merit in dramatisation than in historical accuracy. For example, Mary and Elizabeth never met each other in real life but in a true Bhansali inspired sequence, they meet in a house full of shimmering veils hanging from the ceiling. Elizabeth is shown to be jealous both of her beauty and her courage. She rages about the fact that thanks to disease and also the rigours of her office she’s become more of a man and envies Mary’s femininity.Indeed, the drama in the film comes from the fact that both rulers had to fight court intrigue every step of the way. It’s made out the jealous ‘male’ members of their respective courts came in the way of their friendship. The film’s view is that if the two queens met in real life, they would have achieved something spectacular and the history of the world would have been different. One of the most powerful scenes in the film is Mary’s bloody labour juxtaposed by the image of Elizabeth playing at crafts and then destroying her creation. Her beauty is shown to be her deterrent as Mary is raped by both her husbands. She dies with the hope that her son James might one day succeed her on the throne not only of Scotland but claim England too as his birthright.Saoirse Ronan is the soul of film, giving her all to the project. The first half especially is quiet dull and you sit through it because Saoirse is simply brilliant. The film is shot well and has a picture postcard feel to it but somehow doesn’t rise above the level of a well-crafted costume drama. Margot Robbie, pockmarked and wearing numerous wigs, too is brilliant as Elizabeth and if not for these two actresses, the film easily would have fallen flat.
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