 What positive critique does the film reviewer offer Blanchett? pulling off the transition from hapless young woman to coolly ruthless monarch with uncommon subtlety
Only a strategic marriage to a Spaniard or a Frenchman will mollify all factions, her advisers insist, but the pickings prove dismal. You can't be both a queenly queen and a womanly woman, says the script (by Michael Hirst)--at least not in 1554. Probably, although the evidence suggests that Elizabeth had developed a head for stratagems earlier in life (her position had been precarious since the beheading of her mother) and came to the throne with few girlish illusions about How Things Work in a barbarous state. But Blanchett comes in a close second, pulling off the transition from hapless young woman to coolly ruthless monarch with uncommon subtlety.
 She gives a naturally convincing performance of Elizabeth I's transition from a naive girl to a powerful ruler
 She gives a naturally convincing performance of Elizabeth I's transition from a naive girl to a powerful ruler  She most closely resembles Elizabeth I's cold demeanor, as compared to her actress predecessors  She brings a fresh element of humor and bluntness to Elizabeth I's dialogue  She captures Elizabeth I's bloodthirsty, almost masculine personality with stunning accuracy