Mary Queen of Scots

Lavish and lush historical drama stumbles on its way to greatness by curious and clunky anachronisms in terms of behaviour and personality of its characters - especially the embarrassingly literal and unbelievable conversation during the climactic meeting between the two queens. A shame, because the seeds are here for a great, fiery drama, especially with Ronan and Robbie at the top of their games; wonderful supporting cast as well, with villainous Tennant standing out.

The story moves by clumsy leaps from event to event and a true character portrait is lost in the gaps between the expanses. The parallel between the queens is weakly portrayed and the communication of their sisterhood never achieves any impact at all. Additionally, Margot Robbie is miscast, and the story itself seems misplaced—there is plenty of material within the history to isolate into its own engaging story, but as a whole addressing the whole, the screenplay fails to engage.

What did I get from this, that I didn't get from all the other movies about Elizabeth and Mary? Well, I learned that denim was apparently very much a thing back in those days. Who woulda thunk!? And despite this being a so-called feminist take on the story we are right back to it being all about the men and their manfeelings about powerful women. And of course Elizabeth being jealous of Mary for being pretty and a wife and a mother. Do yourself a solid and just watch The Favourite instead.

Disappointing, which is not to say terrible | • One great young actress (Mary) & one beautiful one that I was hoping to see stretch herself (Elizabeth) : ironically they were cast in the obverse roles as regards to looks | •Ahistorical, dull at times, waste of lots of good acting talent & performances. | •Just didn't engage me, as a history & politics nut, who was really looking forward to seeing this. That was a shame

Ronan, Lowden, and James McArdle are the shining stars of this very,very sadly misguided biopic. Robbie tries her best with what she has, but she doesn't have nearly enough. The pace is sluggish, the writing is dry and laced with errors, not a single character is ever really likeable in any way except Elizabeth. With the talent involved and the true history behind it, it could've been great- unfortunately, it's little more than a disappointing slog- and not even an accurate one.

Tries WAY too hard to make Mary out to be an anachronistically progressive and innocent martyr, to the point where I was muttering "Oh come ON" during several scenes.

okay movie

Watching this was really my wife’s whole thing and I was just zoned out the whole time (so ignore this review if that makes it illegitimate for you), but it all just seemed like hyper-generic medieval pageantry and extravagant costumes and throne squabbling and lords and ladies and all that jazz to me, nothing that hasn’t been seen in a million films and TV shows before and won’t be seen in a million more until the day I die.

Hard to follow in places, even if you're familiar with the history, in large part because the history is hard to follow. And the battle (of Langside?, fictional? cattle???) scene was totally incomprehensible, which, to be fair, fits much of the history. So far, History vs. Hollywood hasn't weighed in on this and if wisdom prevails, probably shouldn't. Political correctness everywhere you look.

Well-designed and well-acted but overall bloated and aimless.

It's boring to watch 2 entitled queens go to their corners &... be wary of one another. But the film's agenda isn't history, it's new wave feminism, i.e. the overt sexism that society is fine w/ with where women are awesome (Mary's a saintly queen & Elizabeth only lasts b/c she's "become a man") & "men are cruel" (Elizabeth redundantly utters this after 90 minutes). There're also implausible anachronisms w/ Mary preaching about "sisterhood" to Elizabeth and Asians & black noblemen as advisors

Interesting, wish it got more nitty and gritty. Great cast though

Oh boy it’s bad. Inaccurate, but also unlikeable portrayals. If you were going to make it inaccurate, why not make the characters more sympathetic or the story more compelling? But they failed in all counts.

Eh. Pretty boring really.

Not historically accurate, re-writes history with the modern agenda. Excellent acting and cinematography, shame.

Niet imponerend. Margot Robbie komt ook niet uit de verf. Ronan speelt het prima, maar het is moeilijk meeleven alles blijft wat afstandelijk. Rare scene met de ontmoeting tussen de 2 queens.

Boa mensagem sobre o poder feminino. Lento em algumas partes. Apesar de achar necessário a cadencia, fica um pouco maçante e tedioso. Não prende muito mas é divertido.

Must present day politics infect everything?

Mary, Queen of Sues.

The push for social agenda is so powerful that the movie steers from historical drama to fanfiction. In this Elizabethan biopic everyone is gay, ethnic, gay-accepting and two of some of the most powerful women in the world's history are portrayed as victims to men. And that is their only merit. Femalewashing the fact that women are plenty capable of cruelty themselves. It is a good-looking film with some impressive scenes, but a history aficionado might not be swayed.

I did find this interesting in the sense that I didn't know a lot of it. However, it was a little boring. The direction just wasn't that inspired, the structure was odd, and it was just kind of dry in general. It sort of just made me want to watch The Favourite (2018) again, which was much more entertaining. Still, the cinematography was beautiful, and the performances from the leads were good. Especially Saoirse Ronan. I'm happy I saw it, but I wouldn't go around recommending it.

1733: not that bad.

Saoirse Ronan will always be a strong presence and she kept me in the film.

Ronan I love you but this is forgetful as it comes.

It's rather slow, and the big confrontation is a dud, but I pretty much enjoyed every minute. Truly great supporting cast.

Very good performances by both women, the half-brother, and Henry. Would have loved more scenes together, historical accuracy notwithstanding. Not sure why Gemma Chan got so much screen time. Great makeup and costumes. Both women felt very trapped in their respective courts. Fav scene: both queens meeting.

Strong leads and good acting. Even the script works, but still it somehow fails to hold interest all the way to the end.

İki düşman kardeşler filmi. İngiltere kraliçesi Elizabeth ile İskoçya Kraliçesi Mary arasındaki hırslarını anlatan film, güzel. Elizabeth bu filmde bir kraliçe, bir azize olarak gösterilmiş. Mary ise ezik bir kraliçe olarak yansıtılmış. Filmin sonunda kardeş katli kurban Mary olsa da, kazanan Mary kraliçemiz oluyor. Aşk herşeyi affeder mi?

Despite the fact that this is a long film comprised of conversations, I only lost interest a couple times. When the credits rolled and I saw Beau Willimon as the sole screenwriter, everything fell into place. The man popularized talking heads with House of Cards, so naturally he'd carry those traits to film. Josie Rourke does a competent job. She also inserts modern social concepts, much to the ire of bored angry people, but I found more hilarious than annoying.

Just about maintains interest although a little slow at times, possibly confusing if not familiar with story. But strong female leads and a strong female message.

It never gave me a sense as to why Mary is a relevant historical figure. Robbie's performance was excellent.

Abandon any attachment to historical realism; this feels more like an over-the-top, melodramatic, colorful alternate universe. I loved it way more than I expected to, perhaps because the trailer tried to disguise this as a standard costume drama.

I don't have any strong feeling for it, but as costume drama, court intrigue, and fine acting go, this is pretty good.

Feels really epic, and I liked the intrigue aspect.

What a great period piece. It moves a little quick in places, but you barely notice. It's extremely well done.