10 Awesome Performances In Otherwise Awful 2017 Movies

The combined talents of Werner Herzog and Nicole Kidman along with a compelling subject and the skills of Herzog’s long-time cinematographer Peter Zeitlinger should’ve been a winning formula but instead Queen of the Desert proved a rare misfire for all involved.

Based on the life of British explorer, writer and political officer Gertrude Bell during her travels and work in the Middle East at the turn of the 20th century, the movie looked set to be an entertaining and long overdue biopic of the overlooked character dubbed the female Lawrence of Arabia.

What Herzog gave us, however, was a surprisingly pedestrian biographical drama given what an interesting person Bell was that trudges through her life focusing more on her romantic liaisons than her many achievements and features nary a trace of Herzog’s trademark offbeat style.

Kidman does her best though convincingly playing Bell from her twenties to her forties and capturing her free-spiritedness and determination, but you can’t help but wonder what Queen of the Desert might’ve been like had Herzog incorporated his usual non-convention and allowed Kidman to embrace her inner Klaus Kinski. A better film, most likely.