The theater we went to was in Santa Ana and is an old multi-plex built long before stadium seating and plush lobbies. It's more of an art house theater now, and I'll stay away from there in the future. There's just too many nice places you can go these days.The movie itself is the story of the relationship between newly installed prime minister Tony Blair and Queen Elizabeth and the royal family as they both tried to figure out how best to handle the death of Princess Diana. The movie certainly makes Blair out to be the hero who may have single-handedly saved the monarcy from themselves. Nobody in the royal household had any idea that Diana's death would cause such an outpouring of grief from the British public, and the Queens seeming lack of compassion nearly created a constitutional crisis. At one point Blair tells her that 25% of the British citizens are ready to end the monarchy, largely because the Queen has remained at Balmoral Castle in Scotland instead of returning to London to lead the public mourning.
The movie begins shortly after Blair takes office and has his first meeting with the Queen, but most of the movie takes place from the Saturday when Diana died through the following Saturday when her memorial service was held. I'm not sure just how factual the day-to-day events were, but it's an interesting look at how the two camps dealt with the P.R problems that resulted.
Prince Charles also comes off fairly well in this movie as he seems to be the only one of the royals who gets what's going on and tries to adjust to the desires of the people. Prince Phillip (the Queen's husband) comes off looking very poorly. I don't think the producers will be getting any invitations for brunch at Buckingham Palace.
The movie runs nearly two hours but goes by very quickly. Although I normally wouldn't go out of my way to see a movie like this, I'm glad I did.
UPDATE: A good review here.
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