The Queen (UK, 2006) November 30, 2006

The England that poured out its grief and condolence at the shocking loss of Princess Diana in the waning summer of 1997 was a nation that had become unfamiliar to the monarch who, at the time of her ex-daughter-in-law's tragedy, had held the British throne for 45 years: Here was a people mourning its princess, awaiting royal public acknowledgment of what Elizabeth II preferred to treat as a private family affair. The film captures the unique tension between the monarchy and everyday British life with understated incisiveness. In the title role, a glorious Helen Mirren conveys a living queen at once regal and empathetically real.