‘Portrait of the Queen’ Review: Seeking Fresh Angles on a Familiar Face

Endless is the stream of packages which have, during the last 70 years, documented the lifetime of Queen Elizabeth II. Yet “Portrait of the Queen” takes on a singular angle, analyzing the creation of the queen’s public picture by, in its best moments, talking to a handful of photographers who’ve taken her portrait all through her reign.

It’s a comparatively attention-grabbing perspective to make use of in contemplating a monarch who remained obstinately inscrutable from her coronation in 1953 to her loss of life in 2022, at 96. Indeed, the documentary’s most illuminating beats come from the photographers’ recollections of personal moments with the queen, once they observe her guarded persona punctuated by sparkles of vulnerability.

Unfortunately, these scenes are few and much between in a movie slowed down by superfluous sequences and formal inconsistencies: an overused, tonally confused rating; two narrators (one among whom is a too-moodily-shot Charles Dance); and talking-head interviews that flit between strange residents and seemingly random celebrities, together with Susan Sarandon and Isabella Rossellini. (Fabrizio Ferri, the movie’s director and a style photographer, clearly referred to as in a favor or two.)

Elements that might have made for a considerably intriguing documentary get misplaced in what quantities to a tedious piece of agitprop that in the end regurgitates the dutifully respectful image of Elizabeth we’ve seen time and time once more.

Portrait of the Queen
Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 20 minutes. Rent or purchase on most main platforms.