Historians will probably despise "Elizabeth," but some filmgoers may embrace its well-crafted elegance as much as the Oscar worthy performance by Cate Blanchett in the title role.

Somewhere in between will be the majority of us who prefer more focus than the glitz this revisionist biography from Indian director Shekhar Kapur ("Bandit Queen") has to offer.

Kapur himself admits that his vision of screenwriter Michael Hirst's story is "a combination of historical fact, illusion and interpretation through the eyes of Elizabeth, the Virgin Queen."

If it sounds as if Kapur might be a tad too impressed with his vision, wait until you get a gander of the queen's virginal transformation. Kapur ruins an interesting comparison to the Virgin Mary by bathing his actress in a blindingly white light that reeks of self-importance.

Ah, but we digress from a tale that opens with Protestants being burned at the stake, later features a sea of blood in Scotland, and generally invokes a sex-filled conspiratorial tone among a slew of characters whose identities are not always easy to keep straight.

Fortunately, even when their screen names are difficult to remember, the faces of actors such as Sir Richard Attenborough, Geoffrey Rush, Christopher Eccleston, Joseph Fiennes, Sir John Gielgud and a glorious Fanny Ardant light Kapur's ambitious landscape like jewels glowing in the dark.

Most radiant of them all is Blanchett. The Australian actress simply rules the screen from beginning to end, whether in and out of bed or off and on the throne.