Mary Queen of Scots

Directed by: Josie Rourke
Screenplay by: Beau Willimon, based upon: Queen of Scots: The True Life of Mary Stuart; by John Guy
Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Margot Robbie, David Tennant, Guy Pearce, Joe Alwyn, and Gemma Chan

Why does it seem that every producer out there now wants to make an English period piece? I guess it’s because of the success of the TV series The Crown and others like it. There’s nothing wrong with that, there’s certainly enough people out there interested in seeing a good period piece.

However, in order to be a ‘good’ period piece, the film has to be ‘entertaining’ in some way, it has to be ‘engrossing’, it has to convey ‘emotion’, and certainly, it has to sweep you up in its ‘passion.’ For no matter how talented your main actors may be, if your script and story don’t allow for those elements to work, all you’re left with is an over packed, dubious, and boring History lesson.

The story of “Mary” and her battle with “Elizabeth I”, has fascinated the film industry for decades, attracting some great talent to various versions, Vanessa Redgrave, Katharine Hepburn, and Samantha Morton have each played ‘Mary’, Helen Mirren, Glenda Jackson, and Cate Blanchett have taken on the ‘Elizabeth’ role. This version is no different, attracting two of today’s most inspired actresses, Saoirse Ronan and Margot Robbie.

Here’s The Storyline

Mary Queen of Scots relates the tale of charismatic Mary Stuart (Ronan) who through marriage became the Queen of France at 16, was widowed at 18, and soon after returned to her native Scotland to restore her rightful claim to the throne of England. However, at that moment in time, Scotland and England were both under the rule of her “sister” the dominant and powerful Elizabeth I (Robbie).

As the two female Monarchs vie for power and rule, they are both hampered by the men surrounding them, who continually plot to usurp their power. Betrayal, rebellion, and conspiracies within each court imperil both thrones. When Mary does eventually assert her claim to the throne, it threatens Elizabeth’s sovereignty and leads to events that change the course of history.

This drama is definitely a noble try, but it lacks any real emotion, generates no real soul and eventually fails to grab you in any sense other than the acting is superb. How so much time, money and effort can be spent on a film like this and wind up being so unaffecting is beyond me.

Director Josie Rourke chose her leads actresses wisely, moved her camera adequately, caught the period well enough, but was hampered by a lacking sense of film timing and a poor screenplay.

The matchless Saoirse Ronan in her first historic role is just brilliant, as is Margot Robbie’s performance as a maturing “Elizabeth”, but again the script limits them from driving their characters into the stratosphere. Additionally, the director made the male characters interchangeable pieces, each could play each, and not a single actor stands out in any significant way. Her feminist view here is that all the men are bad and all the women are good. I hope not.

My take… Only if you hunger to spend two really long hours watching brilliant actresses perform, see the movie. Cheers to Ronan and Robbie!