Jeremy Brock

There is some lovely photography, with gorgeous scenery in Scotland when the Queen and company go to stay in Balmoral. The two main characters are excellent and entirely believable; Victoria in particular ages gracefully and perfectly, as the story progresses.

There isn't really much plot to this film, but we didn't notice that while watching. It's almost entirely character-driven, and that works extremely well. While far from gripping, it was very watchable by four of us with rather different tastes in general. There is some deep emotion, and also a few moments of light humour to lift the mood.… (meer)

It's clear that the filmmakers did actually read Rosemary Sutcliff's book, but they cut most of the character moments that make the book a treasure and replaced them with fights and moralizing so we're left with a generic sword and sandal story. That being said, there are really only three departures that I feel are flat out wrong: not freeing Esca before going North was a mistake because it's important that it's his choice to go; cutting the Demetrius of Alexandria bit was a mistake because it's dumb to go on a covert mission without a cover story; and having the remnants of the Ninth Legion come to the rescue was a mistake because it's just silly.… (meer)