Queen of the Desert

A tedious Romance with magnificent backdrops: Kidman and Franco in Queen of the Desert

Werner Herzog's Queen of the Desert is a dull travelogue that does little to enlighten viewers about its subject, English writer, archaeologist and Arabophile, Gertrude Bell. Herzog's documentaries, such as Into the Darkness, The Dark Glow of the Mountains and, especially, Lessons in Darkness, have shown that he is gifted at revealing the beauty, majesty and terror of Earth's topography. Queen of the Desert has many gorgeous glimpses of the natural and manmade wonders of Morocco, but utterly fails in its depiction of its characters.

Nicole Kidman is fine as Bell, but fine is a limiting adjective. Herzog, who is credited with the screenplay, is negligent in showing Bell's motivations. Herzog ticks off the ills of the era, racism, misogyny and colonialism, but is unable to provide much depth to the Turkish, Druze and Bedouin characters Bell encounters. Thus, Bell's affection for these people never seems felt.

The picture never recovers from a botched portrayal of Bell's romance with Henry Cadogan, a Foreign Office attache based in Tehran. Jude Law was initially cast in the role, but dropped out due to scheduling conflicts. In his stead, we have the badly miscast James Franco. The lack of chemistry and believability in the Kidman and Franco union destroys the momentum of the first third of the picture. Bell's life was crazier and more complex than can be shown in a feature length film. Perhaps the material is more suited for an extended series. By shoehorning the vast expanse of Bell's experiences into a film, Herzog loses that divine spark of madness that animates such films as Aguirre, The Mystery of Kaspar Hauser, Heart of Glass and, even, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans. 

Herzog's pictorial gifts and a good cast make Queen of the Desert somewhat watchable. Mark Lewis Jones, Damian Lewis and Robert Pattinson all have memorable turns. However, Queen of the Desert is so colorless and empty that it stands as a lost opportunity. I was interested in how Herzog would handle Bell's witnessing of the Armenian genocide, but, before this event, Kidman rides into the desert one more time and the film ends abruptly. I was relieved.