Stephen Frears's film The Queen, released in 2006, broadly tells the story of Princess Diana's tragic death and the response (or lack thereof) of the royal family in the days following her death. Particularly, the film centers on Queen Elizabeth II, who had a complicated relationship with Diana and thought that Diana's death ought not to be considered an "official royal death." The film looks at the queen's reactions to Diana's death, her dip in popularity with her subjects, her relationship to Tony Blair, and the tension between traditionalism and forward-thinking.
When it was released, The Queen was successful both critically and financially. Bob Mondello of NPR, for example, loved the film and wrote that "A lesser director might make all of this deadly earnest, but Frears treats it as what you might call a tragi-comedy of manners, perfectly serious but human foibles everywhere."
Additionally, at the Academy Awards that year, Helen Mirren won the Oscar for Best Leading Actress. The film was also nominated for the Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director for Frears, Best Original Screenplay, Best Costume Design, and Best Original Score. Also, the film made $123.4 million at the box office against a budget of $15 million.
