It's a shame that everything collapses when the queens finally meet in a sequence that has all the heft of a gauzy Chanel fragrance spot.

Full Review | Feb 21, 2020

In spite of being handcuffed by uninspired storytelling, [Ronan and Robbie] excel in communicating strength, vulnerability and isolation as two monarchs ruling in a man's world.

Full Review | Jul 29, 2019

Few movies make a better case for reexamining the patriarchal historical truths we've come to accept than the impassioned, intricate Mary Queen of Scots.

Full Review | Feb 7, 2019

The two-hour-long film does require patience. But there is enough juice here to keep you hooked.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 2, 2019

Beau Willimon's stiflingly expository screenplay... moonlights as the undergraduate lecture David Starkey would give after a partial lobotomy.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jan 20, 2019

Director Josie Rourke makes a very assured move from the theatre to the cinema screen in her feature debut, a full-blooded tale of personal and political rivalries told with wit, flair and passion.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 20, 2019

Sadly, most of Mary Queen of Scots (no comma?) leans towards the drab and the pedestrian.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 18, 2019

Mary Queen Of Scots is a passable historical drama whose odd story choices are saved by a strong performance from Saoirse Ronan.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 17, 2019

It feels almost treacherous to confess that Mary Queen of Scots left me as cold as the execution axe's blade -- and that's after watching twice to make sure I wasn't missing something.

Full Review | Jan 17, 2019

It is lifeless, in other words, and quite the slog, with jerky pacing, such an abundance of bearded men you lose track of which bearded man is which, and it reduces two of history's most fascinating women to not much of anything.

Full Review | Jan 17, 2019

Above all, Mary Queen of Scots excels at showing how women's bodies are so often weaponised against them... Its depiction of female bodies may not be shocking -- but its normalising stance might just jolt us into altering our reaction towards them.

Full Review | Jan 17, 2019

An epoch-defining face-off, rendered lifeless by an unwillingness to focus on the core drama.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jan 17, 2019

It's not a perfect film, as you'd expect from a debut, but it's a gutsy and gorgeous landmark.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 16, 2019

If the film were any more fun it would be barely legal.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 16, 2019

This is a heartfelt, serious-minded film about 16th-century power politics from screenwriter Beau Willimon and director Josie Rourke, theatrically conceived, and influenced by Shekhar Kapur's Elizabeth.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 16, 2019

[The film] inevitably does a disservice to its subjects -- Mary and Elizabeth were real women, not historical superheroes.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 16, 2019

It's a lavish production but an uneven one.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 11, 2019

Mary Queen of Scots is a tawdry soap opera that insists it's an intelligent political thriller.

Full Review | Dec 21, 2018

From the moment Saoirse Ronan's Mary Stuart washes ashore, us and everyone on that craggy balmy Scottish beach innately know her as royalty.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 15, 2018

[A] lack of consistency makes far too many pivotal plot points seem arbitrary, as if the filmmakers realized, "we have to get things moving!"

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Dec 14, 2018