Eight Oscar nominations is no mean feat for a debut international project. Shekhar Kapur's film, charting Elizabeth's progress from gauche, vulnerable girl to England's most powerful monarch, is rich and complex.

There are the customary touches of romance - young Elizabeth's (Blanchett) affair with Sir Robert Dudley (Fiennes) - replete with dances (remarkably like those in Shakespeare in Love). And gore - especially the opening scene where the heretics are burnt at the stake (never mind the romanticising of the event), the Tower of London scene, etc.

A winner of a performance from Blanchett. Expressive, sensitive, harsh. A not-so-remarkable one from Fiennes. His talent has just not been exploited, though he could be forgiven - Kapur devoted all his attention to Elizabeth. The inherent complexities in Dudley's character could have been explored more. Geoffrey Rush brings in shades and depths to Sir Francis Walsingham's character as only he can.

Scene stealer: Elizabeth rehearsing her forthcoming speech tot he bishops of England. Can question: Sniffer dogs, long, base-coated nails, well-lit palaces in Elizabethan England?