This must be the jewel in the crown of Hollywood's obsession with identity and the perfect example of a whole smogarsboard of mistakes. From the unfortunate trailer that must have been designed with the explicit intent to create controversy- why elser put that silly old woman with her grandma into it?-to the girl power vibe that Jada Pinkett further emphasized with her melodramatic narration. The director seems to have a fundamental misunderstanding of the difference between fiction and documentary. People keep bringing up the example of Liz Taylor, yet the movie never claimed to be a historically correct account, but pure entertainment. This is not the case with this unfortunate concoction that puts Cleopatra into the same basket with other African queens (whatever that means), though neither her ancestry nor her position imply she had anything to do with Egyptian heritage apart from the fact she ruled over the country. If the world's leading Egyptologist who's currently searching for her tomb, Zahi Hawass, calls this a fradulent mess, the only thing viewers whose grandmothers had some basic education can do is to give this self-righteous pile of wishful thinking a skip. In the attempt to make her look more relatable, textured and stronger, Adele James made a fool of herself. I suggest to the director to stick to fiction in the future. If she continues with her wrecking ball-approach to history, who knows how far she might go. Maybe the granny from the trailer knows it, but I don't want to know. Let's hope we can put this traumatic experience to bed soon and I hope the same thing doesn't happen to Adele James' career as well.
Review of Queen Cleopatra
