Lady Jane
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Movie Reviews of Lady Jane
Movie Review: A watchable enough period piece that loses almost everything of interest in the true story
Summary: 3 Stars
"You will be tried... and naturally you will be condemned to death, but, of course, I have the power of reprieve, which at present I intend to use."
"With no conditions?"
"Well, it would help if you promised not to steal my throne again!"
While such direlogue is thankfully in the minority, Lady Jane is still a film that some of its makers still seem to pretend doesn't exist: a very undistinguished debut for Helena Bonham Carter that she never talks about and enough of a financial disaster for director Trevor Nunn to later claim that his 1996 version of Twelfth Night was his screen directorial debut. Made during the British film industry's dark days of the mid-80s in a failed attempt to recapture the audience for the likes of Anne of the Thousand Days and A Man For All Seasons, it was one of only two films made by Paramount's much-hyped British production arm before they shut up shop (the Ralph Fiennes-Juliette Binoche Wuthering Heights was the other). It may have opened to even more public indifference than Elizabeth: The Golden Age but it's rather better than you might expect even if it is never quite good enough.
Lady Jane Grey's brief nine day reign as queen of England had been given a much-fictionalised screen treatment before in 1936's Tudor Rose, but this version had some (almost entirely unrealised) aspirations towards historical accuracy even if it does turn Jane and her wastrel husband Guildford Dudley (a name that sounds more like a bicycle race than a possible king) into doomed lovers when they hated each other all the way to the executioners' block. Both were very much puppets of their parents' ambitions: the dying young King Edward's protector Lord Dudley wanted to ensure the elevation of his own family from commoners to nobility to royalty under the guise of ensuring the succession of a Protestant monarch to protect the fledging Reformed Church, and the social-climbing Suffolks rather liked the idea of becoming royalty (though it was actually Jane's mother who had precedence in the line of succession) while their offspring had no say in the matter even if it was to cost them their lives. The film is at its best in showing the conflict between a young generation that had embraced the then-excitement and new ideas of a religion rejecting Rome and without arcane ritual and an older generation that had either profited handsomely from the dissolution of the monasteries or had suffered grievously and wanted to restore the old religion and with it the old status quo, although it never makes the obvious link between Jane's ferocious religious fanaticism and the unhappy, unloved childhood that appears to have driven her towards it in much the same way that the ostracised Queen Mary was drawn to her fanatical Catholicism.
Unfortunately, Nunn's direction is even more of a major problem than a watered-down script. He's fine when people are talking, even if they're walking at the same time, yet any more complicated form of action seems completely beyond him. And in this case action doesn't just apply to a pub brawl that's shot like badly blocked and under-rehearsed 50s television but scenes like Lady Jane throwing a fit in a room and knocking the silverware on the floor while supporting players very, very slowly try not to catch up with her and stop her: the camera is in the wrong place, the timing wildly misjudged, the actors' movements horribly unconvincing. They're the kind of mistakes you'd expect from an amateur movie maker's first efforts, not someone with a decent budget and a cinematographer with as much experience as Douglas Slocombe to advise him, and they make you half-glad that the modest budget didn't stretch to filming the story's offscreen battles. He also gives away his theatre background by framing many shots as if for the proscenium arch, never really embracing the possibilities and freedom of the movie camera.
Nor does he get the most out of some of the cast. Old pros like John Wood, Michael Hordern, Jane Lapatoire and Joss Ackland are fine (though most of the older actors have little, if anything, to do), as are Warren Saire as the dying young King Edward and, for the most part, Cary Elwes as young Dudley, but Bonham Carter's performance is particularly problematic. Looking even younger than her character's 16 years and nothing like the freckle-faced redhead of history, her performance is often awkward and fairly consistently unlikeable, making Jane less a tragic figure and more of a petulant Catholic-baiting little madam who got what was coming to her, a Tudor Wednesday Addams rather than a Tudor Rose. At times she looks less like a lost soul than a panicking inexperienced actress deliberately cast adrift without being told what she's supposed to do, desperately looking to the sidelines for help that's not forthcoming, all too often leaving you feeling sorry for the actress but nothing for the character. To be fair it seems to be more a problem of direction and it's not hard to guess which scenes were shot first from her awkwardness, although she visibly gains confidence as the film progresses.
Yet it's not all bad. It does show what a disastrous queen she would have made, although the film does give the impression that Jane and Guilford were a pair of hippie libertarians - indeed, with its Romeo and Juliet love story and bucolic romantic montage sequence you almost get the impression that this was intended as a Franco Zeffirelli film a la Brother Sun, Sister Moon. Bonham Carter's brief scenes with Hordern's Dr Feckenham where they pit their faiths against each other are the best in the picture and it's a pity there aren't more of them in David Edgar's screenplay, while the end is touching despite being almost as clumsily staged as the real execution (it's a tastefully bloodless affair here, though, quite unlike the reports of the real thing: one observer was moved to note that he couldn't believe so much blood could come from such a small body). Stephen Oliver's excellent score is good enough to make it a genuine shame that he never got to write any more, adding him to that list of talented British composers like Marc Wilkinson and Raymond Leppard who never got the breaks their gifts deserved. At the end of the day it's a watchable enough period piece for a Sunday afternoon, but one that probably plays better on TV than it did on the big screen.
The widescreen 1.85:1 DVD transfer is acceptable, though the stereo track impresses more. The only extra is a decent black and white stills gallery.
Movie Review: A Decent Historical Drama
Summary: 3 Stars
Trevor Nunn's film on the historical Lady Jane Grey, Queen of England for nine days before losing her head in the religion driven politics of the day. Helena Bonham Carter plays a credible role as the young queen-to-be who is manipulated by the intrigues of her parents and others into assuming the throne. Cary Elwes plays a perhaps less convincing role as Guilford of Northumberland, a Don Giovanni type bachelor who is not in a hurry to get married for political reasons.
The story seems to keep up its mood of historical drama until the prince and princess are united; it then almost desintegrates into a childish a fairy tale fantasy that is completely at odds with the drama. Prince and princess begin looking at the other with puppy eyes and dreaming silly things they would do. In short, the characters decend into a type of gibberish dialogue that can't possibly reflect the attitudes of those days. Fortunately,the tragic elements of history come to save the day and take Lady Jane Grey to the block.
The filming is good as are the settings and costumes. The plot rolls along smoothly and credibly and the actors play their roles quite well for the most part. The young cast is also supported by seasoned actors such as Patrick Stewart playing Jane's father. Overall, a pretty good movie to watch.
Movie Review: Lady Jane
Summary: 3 Stars
Lady Jane is a movie that has outstanding visual presentation (the costumes and cinematography). Helena Bonham Carter and Cary Elwes are well cast as Lady Jane and Guilford Dudley. There is able support from Patrick Stewart and John Abbott. However, this movie is more idealized than accurate.
Lady Jane is little more than an avatar for 1960s idealism in this film. Having public schools, 20th Century style welfare programs were probably not on her agenda. This is what detracted from the film.
The actor playing John Dudley was a good portrayal. He really didn't care about the Protestant vs. Catholic conflict. He wanted to maintain the Dudley family fortunes.
The movie was disappointing in that the real Lady Jane Grey would have been a great movie. No temporopormorphizing was necessary.
For those wanting an accurate and interesting account of Lady Jane Grey, "Innocent Traitor" Innocent Traitor: A Novel of Lady Jane Grey and The Children of Henry VIII are recommended.
Movie Review: It could have gone farther
Summary: 3 Stars
with Lady Jane Grey's story than it did. The rose-colored view of Jane's demise was not historically accurate, to my understanding. Jane and her husband were not in love. It turned a story of a woman's amazing helplessness over her fate into a love story, when it would have been more interesting the former way. I wanted to see this movie after seeing Delaroche's "The Execution of Lady Jane Grey," but the movie disappointed me. It would interest those wanting to see a historical romance movie, but for those wanting historical fact brought to light, it's sadly lacking.Movie Review: Undelivered
Summary: 3 Stars
While Helena Carter is terrific in her role as Lady Jane (Queen Jane for 9 days), the movie as a whole falls short because it doesn't present the sequence of events convincingly. The build-up to Lady Jane's crowning moment is rather lame and a little confusing, and the nine days of her "reign" are not documented well. There's also too much of a love story, with her persistence in her faith more like a sideshow or afterthought. Overall it's still an enjoyable experience, if it does frustrate the viewer a little.