I was SO VERY disappointed in it. The film seemed to straddle two major points of view without adopting either one or the other.
It had an interesting element of fantasy, but it also tried to be a straight bio pic.
I think, given past films made about her where we know her story, they could’ve emphasized the fantasy element more to make it more interesting. Too many characters in that film had too little screen time so why even bother with them? And rather than focusing so much time on Darnley, I would’ve taken Bothwell and blew him up big in the production because he is the interesting story. All of the homosexuals in the Stuart line of kings are interesting I suppose.I read that Guy Pearce was in this film yet I don’t even remember seeing him there were so many people having so little time on screen.
I found the casting of African-Americans, and Asian Lady in waiting, and etc. to be extremely jarring in a film that is, as I said, more straight bio than fantasy. Yet, that would’ve worked very very well to further the fantasy element, if that is what they emphasized. And of course by fantasy I am talking about the big scene at the end where she meets Queen Elizabeth I through the gauzzy curtain set. That never happened in real life, the two queens did not meet.