Film

Mary Queen of Scots

Name: Mary Queen of Scots
Genre: Drama, History
Released: 2018
Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Margot Robbie, Jack Lowden, David Tennant, Guy Pearce

This is Josie Rourke's take on the rivalry between Mary Stuart and Elizabeth I: less scheming empire, more two young women boxed in by the men supposedly serving them. Ronan and Robbie play cousins-by-blood who never actually meet, correspondence and rumour doing the damage enemies usually do face to face. Gorgeous, deliberately paced, more interested in loneliness and gender than swordplay — for lovers of prestige costume drama willing to sit with quiet dread rather than spectacle.

TMDb rating

6.5

If you liked this

The Favourite2018

If you want court intrigue with teeth, this gives you two women scheming for a monarch's favour with venom, wit and absurdist flourishes that Mary Queen of Scots plays entirely straight.

But Its arch comic tone and modern anachronism will jar if you wanted the sincerity and grandeur of a straight historical epic.

Wolf Hall2015

Same Tudor world, same paranoid court politics, but told through Cromwell's cold, patient calculation rather than queenly desperation — slower, denser, and just as ruthless.

But Minimal music, hushed rooms, and glacial pacing demand patience some evenings just won't have.

Elizabeth1998

Cate Blanchett's Elizabeth before she hardens into the icon Robbie plays here — watch the transformation from vulnerable girl to armoured monarch happen on screen.

But Its garish, theatrical style and historical liberties are far bolder and less restrained than the film you just watched.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Mary of Scotland1936no page yet

Same rivalry, same tragic arc, but told eighty years earlier as pure Hollywood myth-making — seeing how differently each era chooses to canonise or vilify these women says as much about Mary as either film does.

Katharine Hepburn plays Mary as a martyr-heroine in John Ford's lush, theatrical melodrama — a fascinating time capsule of how Hollywood's golden age wanted this story told.

But Wildly inaccurate, stagebound, and drenched in swooning melodrama that modern viewers may find more camp than compelling.

The Young Victoria2009no page yet

Another young queen squeezed between advisors, suitors and duty, but in a warmer, more romantic register — a gentler companion piece about the loneliness of a crown.

But It's softer and more conventionally romantic, without the political menace that drives Mary Queen of Scots.

The Crown2016

If it's the machinery of monarchy that hooked you — duty crushing desire, advisors circling — here's dozens of hours of that same tension stretched across a whole century.

But A totally different century and tone; the modern setting and slow-burn seasons are a big commitment for a different kind of royal story.

The Other Boleyn Girl2008no page yet

More Tudor court, more sisters and cousins pitted against each other by ambitious men, with the same sense that royal women were pawns dressed as players.

But Pacier and pulpier, with less interest in political nuance than in melodrama and rivalry.

Elizabeth: The Golden Age2007no page yet

Picks up Elizabeth's story mid-reign, including her fraught relationship with Mary Stuart from the English side — a direct companion piece to fill in the other half.

But Its visual excess and looser grip on history tip further into spectacle than the grounded film you just saw.

Reign2013

Mary's teenage years at the French court, reimagined as glossy, soapy teen drama — the same woman, decades before the crown became a trap.

But Anachronistic costumes, pop soundtrack and CW-style melodrama make this a completely different animal tonally.

Victoria2016

Another queen negotiating marriage, motherhood and rule under constant male scrutiny, with the same interest in the private cost of public power.

But Cosier and more soap-operatic, with far lower stakes than the mortal danger surrounding Mary and Elizabeth.

The Metropolitan Opera: Maria Stuarda2013no page yet

Both works build to the same invented showdown between the queens; watching where that scene actually comes from — nineteenth-century opera myth, not the historical record — reframes the whole film as inherited legend rather than biography.

Donizetti's opera imagines the confrontation between Mary and Elizabeth that never actually happened — the exact fictional meeting the 2018 film also stages, sung instead of spoken, at full emotional volume.

But Opera is a big ask if you don't already like it — hours of Italian singing with subtitles, no battle scenes, no restraint.

Killing Eve2018

Strip away the crowns and you get the same engine — two women defined by their fascination with each other, never quite meeting, each shaping the other's fate from a distance.

Two women locked in a fatal, obsessive rivalry across an uncrossable divide, playing a lethal game of near-misses and fixation — same bones, entirely different genre and much darker humour.

But It's a spy thriller with none of the historical weight — pulpy, violent, and often very funny in ways that would feel wrong applied to Mary and Elizabeth.