Taken separately, Clive Owen, Cate Blanchett and Geoffrey Rush were all brilliant. Clive is certainly convincing as Walter Raleigh, and Cate is brilliant but this film did not flow at all.<br /><br />I blame the direction, editing and script as being all very very weak.<br /><br />The resultant mess is a colossal waste of talent! I love the story, and have read and re-read the historical facts pertinent to the film. The premise main was not entirely flawed, although it does gloss over and leave out a lot. (where are you Sir Francis?) <br /><br />Actually if they had left out Raleigh and had Clive play Drake this might have worked! ) coulda ... shoulda ... woulda .... oh well !!!! Drake was the bigger player than Raleigh and burned the Spanish fleet at Cadiz the year before.<br /><br />It's possible that Mary Queen of Scots may have been setup by Phillip the Second, although, no one can really say whether that's true, it seems highly unlikely.<br /><br />Also I doubt that Elizabeth was as uncertain of herself and conflicted as portrayed by the film. By then she was a survivor's survivor and new all the in's and out's of Renaissance Europe's Machiavellian politics. I did give Cate a great opportunity however. Unfortunately the movie just did not carry the story of England and Elizabeth's triumph over the Spanish as well as it could, actually it doesn't carry the story at all.