Mary, Queen of Scots (2018)

The Godmother
or
"They Are Sisters" (In a World Without Love)

It seems that every decade has to have their own movie about Mary, Queen of Scots and her struggle with the reigning Queen Elizabeth I, her cousin. She has been portrayed by Katherine Hepburn, Vanessa Redgrave, and recently (in Cate Blanchett's "Elizabeth" films) by Samantha Morton. The various films sway between sides being taken, finding Mary either a bold, presumptive opportunist, or a wronged legitimate heir to the throne (and Elizabeth portrayed as a calculating shrew). It all depends on whether you're Protestant or Catholic, Anglophile or Spec-Historian, "Team" Tudor or "Team" Stuart. There are a lot of sides, just as there were at the time things were going down in "The Isles" in the 16th Century.

The latest "take" on the saga is based on historian John Guy's book "My Heart is My Own: The Life of Mary Queen of Scots" and it, judging by the film based on it—the latest Mary, Queen of Scots—seems to want it both ways, emphasizing more of what the women had in common than in what separated them.

They may have had their differences but but both shared uneasy paths due to their sex. Henry VIII (Elizabeth's father by Anne Boleyn, wife #2) had only one male heir, (by Jane Seymour, wife #3)—who would become King Edward VI at the age of nine(!)—and the older half-sisters Mary (by Catherine of Aragon, wife #1) and Elizabeth—due to Henry's many wives and his way of dealing with the Church to attain them—were considered, by decree, illegitimate. Edward died at the age of 25 and named the Lady Jane Grey, the daughter of Henry VIII's sister, his successor. The reason? Mary was a Roman Catholic, and Henry and Edward had spent a lot of time and effort getting out from underneath the Pope's robes to go back to The Church. Lady Jane didn't last long, Mary claimed the throne and lasted five years trying to return Catholicism to the primary faith, and was succeeded by Elizabeth, who didn't like it and reversed it.

Now, bear with me here: Mary was the daughter of King James V of Scotland, the son of James IV and Mary Tudor, who was Henry VIII's sister, thus making Mary and Elizabeth cousins (I'll give you a moment...). James V died when Mary (Queen of Scots, his daughter) was six days old and she—at that age—became Queen of Scotland.* There weren't many things she could do regally at that age, of course, so the leadership of Scotland was done by regents, all male and all probably bitter that their Queen was a baby. A female baby, at that. Anyway, Henry VIII's finagling caused a lot of trouble for his relations' when they got to The Big Chair. For both Mary and Elizabeth, the toughest part of their job was being the female rulers of men. The monarchy has always had a history of men in the shadow of the throne trying to thrown their own shade, and Mary and Elizabeth both had to deal with leading reluctant dance-partners, who wanted to decide the moves themselves.

Josie Rourke's film details the issues that Mary Stuart (played here by Saorise Ronan) had to contend with—a viable claim to England's throne, her Catholic faith when England had turned Protestant (after flirting again with Catholicism), recent widowhood and the desire for an heir apparent. Her probably too-quick decision to marry a cousin, Henry Darnley (Jack Lowden) who was not only a drunkard, a would-be usurper of the crown, but also gay (or at least bi-sexual), creating in one nuclear family, all the larger issues she had to deal with. Her regents resented her forthrightness, her taking her own counsel rather than theirs, her alignment with the Pope rather than a devotion to Christ, and her own ambitions to be Queen of England, not just Scotland.  

Her marriage to Darnley did produce one heir, James (who did ascend to the throne after Elizabeth's death), but men were only too willing to take her as wife to try to take her authority as Queen away from her. 

Watching Mary's trials and tribulations across the way must have had a large influence on Elizabeth (played by Margot Robbie), who, famously, never married—was it due to a fear that her authority would be usurped?—and adapted a stance that, given the wrangling among the roosters of her own court, she had to adapt a male attitude id she was to maintain her authority. She had been denied the throne once, and incarcerated for part of that time, so she knew how quickly fortunes could change, even without mis-steps that might hasten it. It was the very nature of Nature, being a part of the Empire's rule of succession.

The movie traces both women's struggles to keep power in a male-dominated world, while they also eyed each other across the way, admiringly but acquisitively, each seeing the threat the other poses. They posture and correspond, their meanings hidden between the lines of their prose. Being cousins, and female, they take more diplomatic means rather than direct words and actions than they do against their male challengers.

It is inevitable (at least, in the movies) that they meet, although they never did in real life. And Rourke stages it obliquely—Mary travels to England for safe-keeping, as she's under threat from her own people—and, in a plain laundry-house, they hold a conversation through layers of hanging sheets (metaphors, anyone?), Mary moving them, Elizabeth cloaked, hiding behind them, until the veils are removed and the conversation becomes more direct and revealing, with Elizabeth summing up Mary thus: "Beauty—bravery—motherhood—you seem to have surpassed me in every way (but) your gifts are your downfall.

And Mary spits out the threat: "Should you murder me, remember—you murder your sister and you murder your Queen."

If you know history, you know how THAT turned out.

Rourke's film is sumptuous in location-work, costumes and hair and make-up—it takes quite a bit of masterful work to make Margot Robbie look unattractive—and the performances are incredibly detailed and lived in (it's also quite fun to see David Tennant play a villain, but he has a lot of company among the Scottish characters).

One appreciates all the work involved, but Mary, Queen of Scots feels a bit stale, despite raunching it up with a couple sex scenes that feel unnecessary. The film opens up a bit when Mary and Elizabeth are not embroiled in fights with the conniving men in their lives, showing them at peace with themselves and with others. It's in those places where Mary, Queen of Scots feels best. One must assume that the two queens would agree—that their jobs would be so much easier without men.

"England does not look so different from Scotland."
"Aye, they are sisters..."

* It is probably at this time that you're thinking the American idea of democracy and voting for your country's leader might not be a bad idea, despite recent turns of events.