The Queen’s Sister (2005/BBC Home Video)
Picture: C+ Sound: C+ Extras: B- Telefilm: B-
Lucy Cohn
is very good as Princess Margaret, sister of Queen Elizabeth II in Simon Cellan
Jones’ British TV movie The Queen’s
Sister (2005) as a bold and some what effective telling of her wild and
unusual ways in power and with men. Not
content with complacency, she wants more and is willing to go outside of the
box of royalty and beyond its protective walls to find something more exciting.
Unfortunately,
becoming the family’s first media star has more drawbacks than anything else
and it is a rocky, exciting ride.
Unfortunately, this runs only 95 minutes and just rushes through the
chronology far too quickly in Craig Warner’s teleplay. Cohn is so good that this should have been a
mini-series and still managed to find solid critical and commercial success.
Toby
Stephens is also very effective as her first husband and he gets to show his
acting ability far better than his stint in the 007 dud Die Another Day. Acting is
good all around and when all is over, you wished it had not gone by so
fast. Still, if you have not seen it, it
is definitely worth a look.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is somewhat stylized, but still a little
softer than one might like. It seems to
have been shot in HD, so an HD version will make for an interesting
comparison. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
is clean and clear enough, but has no real surrounds, despite several prominent
uses of song. The combination is watchable
enough. Extras include the bonus program
A
Royal Scandal, starring Richard E. Grant and narrated by Ian Richardson
and a documentary retrospective of Princess Margaret's early life.
- Nicholas Sheffo
