MydnightRose Review of Whatever Love Means

Whatever Love Means (2005 TV Movie)

Very good telling of the other side of the story

[26 September 2011]

I really enjoyed this movie and the way it portrayed Charles and Camilla. They are not the villains people want them to be, they are just two people who found themselves so deeply in love that they couldn't stay away from each other. Olivia Poulet was a great Camilla, and portrayed how multi-layered she was and probably still is. She was definitely a woman of the 70's when she met Charles; though I have always wondered what it was about Andrew that made her hold onto him so hard, especially as opposed to Charles. Laurence Fox plays Charles in a very sympathetic light, though I must say if he, the writers and directors took the lost puppy dog angle a little too far. Charles had some awkward qualities about him but he still had a long string of girlfriends before he met Camilla and after she was married. Despite the fact that they didn't get Charles completely right, I think all involved did a great job of showing how important Camilla was to him and how she gave him something that no other woman, perhaps nobody in general, was able to give him. I must admit that I found myself falling in love with Laurence's Prince Charles, and his awkward, sullen, a little jittery man with a quiet strength about him. One of the stand outs in this movie is Princess Anne who only pops up from time to time but always steals the scene with her witty comments and her British nose permanently up in the air. I have never been a fan of Anne, but Alexandra made me like her and laugh at the world with her. Don't know if Anne was really like this, but in this movie she always has a sense of knowing what is going on and relaying to Charles the reality of a situation which he, for some reason, is unable to see. This is not a movie about Diana, or Charles and Diana; it is a movie about Charles and Camilla and their first and second go around, the second one which ended when Charles marries Diana. I feel Michelle Duncan played a good Diana who was shy, beautiful, and in love with the idea of Charles rather than Charles himself. All parties involved come off looking equally good, bad, and selfish; the movie ends with the hope that CnC will remain friends but put an end to the romantic and sexual aspect of their relationship and that Charles will somehow find happiness with Diana. I definitely think royal watchers should look into this movie.