Starring: Nicole Kidman, James Franco, Damian Lewis
Directed By: Werner Herzog
Written By: Werner Herzog
Reviewed by Brendan Dousi
[rating: 1.5/5]
Werner Herzog is without a doubt a great director, all you have to do is look at his career and see a plentitude of fantastic features and engrossing documentaries. Unfortunately, like the rest of us, even the greatest directors are set to stumble every once in a while. Herzog’s Queen of the Desert had all the makings to be one of his great’s; a wonderful leading lady in Nicole Kidman, the interesting and important story of Gertrude Bell and her WWI-era efforts establishing relations with the Middle East and the opportunity to blow us away with some beautiful Desert visuals thanks to some on-location shooting in Jordan. Unfortunately, these elements didn’t quite come together to create as engaging an experience as we’ve come to expect from Herzog.
It was a little disappointing going into this film expecting to truly be shown what made Gertrude Bell tick, to expect an examination of her character and see her strive to overcome the prejudices of the time and instead be met with a series of increasingly uninspired romances. Great emphasis is put onto Bell’s love life, the entire first act of the movie positively drags as it sets up the romance between Kidman’s Bell and James Franco’s Henry Cadogan. I understand that this was an important facet of her life, this man inspired her and was in many ways a catalyst for the events in her life. But so much time is spent here, languishing and limply plodding forward. What could have been done in minutes feels like it takes an eternity and when we finally do get to the interesting, meaty parts of Bell’s life it’s hard to raise the energy to care. It’s almost as if Herzog’s decision to tackle Bell’s life chronologically has done her story a misjustice, instead of focusing on her dull earlier life for so long we should have started in the meat of her story, as this strong woman butt’s heads with middle eastern royalty and stuffy British military aristocrats. Instead, by the time we get to the good stuff, we’re already bored.
For the most part, however, this is a beautiful looking film. On-location shooting in Jordan and the usual disguising of Morocco as the Middle East blend perfectly to make some fantastic visuals that really set this film apart. There are a few strange directorial decisions that don’t quite add to the film, in particular a very obvious drone shot on a much lower resolution sticks out like a sore thumb. It would have been a great shot, I give them that, but it just screams of the filmmakers deciding to put it in because they worked hard for it, despite it being in detriment to the look of the film.
Speaking of Morocco and Jordan, perhaps the biggest ask of the audience in the film is to believe that Nicole Kidman’s Gertrude Bell managed to keep her beautiful porcelain skin completely untarnished after years living in a harsh desert landscape. No matter how fashionable she makes those head-scarves look there’s no way she didn’t suffer at least moderate sun damage. But it’s a film, I get it, and Kidman looks glamorous and plays her part with grace. Less graceful, however, is James Franco’s truly odd British accent. I’d almost recommend watching this film for that alone. It truly is an experience to behold.
Queen of the Desert is a swing and a miss for Werner Herzog who squanders the opportunity to tell an important story about a wonderful woman by getting bogged down in the myriad details of her earlier life and romances. The film, unfortunately, never recovers from its first act and just ends up as a boring slog through the seemingly endless desert.
