Mrs Brown

After the death of her husband Albert, Queen Victoria withdraws entirely from public life. To draw her out again, the court brings her former ghillie John Brown down from the Scottish estate. Brown has no interest in court manners: he addresses the queen by name, tells her she ought to ride, argues with instructions. Victoria grows used to behaviour nobody has offered her in years, and a closeness forms between them that unsettles the household. Gossip starts quickly and the press begins calling her Mrs Brown. The film's subject is not what the relationship was but what monarchy does to a person: Victoria wants to grieve while the state wants her visible, and Brown is the only person treating her as a human being. Judi Dench plays Victoria and was Oscar-nominated for it; Billy Connolly plays Brown. John Madden directed. It was shot on location in Scotland. A solid choice for anyone who likes British period drama and films built on two performances. For a viewer wanting historical certainty, the nature of the relationship is still disputed and the film picks its own reading.