Plot: Mary Stuart attempts to overthrow cousin Elizabeth as Queen Of England.

Bit of a strange build-up as there wasn't a large amount until probably within a month of its release.


A film with a historical story rich in discussion and research over the years, I was expecting a mammoth sized marketing for it for months on end.


That for me means that it has not captured the critics imagination enough to be one of the years best.


That being said, with the always amazing Soairse Ronan and Margot Robbie leading the way, I still felt that this could be another feature where the fans saw what the critics never got.


Now that I've seen it, I can see why there was not that critical hype surround it.
While I thought the film was pretty solid, I did end up somewhat disappointed at the same time. With the calibre involved in this famous story and the release being in the hotbed of awards season, I think the hype had me expecting so much more.


There was nothing wrong with it at all. The production is strong, the Scottish settings were gorgeous to look at on screen and the score gave it some grandeur and enhanced the importance of certain scenes. But outside of that and maybe Soairse Ronan's continuing high quality of executing accents, I felt nothing else was exceptional, just serviceable.


The story just moved along at a perfectly fine pace, and as soon as the credits rolled, I would probably struggle to recall scenes from the film.
Even when they bent some of the historical accuracies, I felt nothing towards them. I just took it for what it was and carried on.


Despite my disappointment, I do think certain audiences will like this, and possibly love this. For me, I felt this was a perfectly fine historical period piece, but with few strengths to make it a memorable watch.
I think I'll stick to the 1971 version with Vanessa Redgrave.


Rating: 7/10