TV REVIEWS : A Superficial Look at ‘Elizabeth R’

Although it seems that director Edward Mirzoeff’s camera is peering over Queen Elizabeth II’s shoulder during the entire filming of his two-hour “Elizabeth R: A Year in the Life of the Queen” (9 p.m. tonight, KCET Channel 28), it is more likely that the good Queen was looking over Mirzoeff’s shoulder while he was editing his film. Touched with just enough moments of “intimacy” and “surprise” to lend it the faint whiff of cinema verite , this look at the monarch from autumnal 1991 to autumnal 1992 is a dutifully loving portrait--much like the portrait paintings Mirzoeff dotes over.

He surely must identify with the painter, since he too was clearly following commands to make the lady look as good as possible. We are up close and personal with Elizabeth during her work sessions with her various (male) secretaries, or her passion for horse racing, or her treks in Balmoral with the grandkids. It’s a supremely balanced mixture of perfectly engineered public relations images--the serious Queen, the playful Queen, the loving Queen. Fans of the royals will be on cloud nine.

We soon realize that “Elizabeth R” is simply an extension of precisely what we’re seeing: The Elizabeth Show, displaying regal proof that the Commonwealth and the Windsor royal line are alive and well. Certainly, her guest, Lech Walesa, is visibly knocked out by the pomp and circumstance.

But as anyone who hasn’t been asleep for the last few years knows, the Windsors are in deep turmoil during a time when there is open talk of scuttling the royal family and its enormous expenses, covered by Britain. The latest reports of an impending Diana-Charles divorce, the continuing Fergie scandals, and the rest, suggest a family in tatters, with Elizabeth as the glue. Mirzoeff’s obedient camera shows a noble, sweet, cool woman, but the rest of the family remains tucked safely away in the background. The show makes the most outrageous Fleet Street reports seem comparatively honest.