I seriously recommend that you do continue to avoid The Importance of Being Earnest. All-in-all it's one of my most favorite plays, but the whole take on it in the film was just ... so wrong.
Don't know if you know the play, but Judi played Lady Bracknell. In the play, there is a wonderful line where Lady Bracknell is described as being "a monster without being a myth, which is unfair." Well, in the film, Lady Bracknell wasn't a monster, she was a terribly ordinary person, and that's just not right.
Judi was soooo wonderful in Mrs. Brown. That was the first thing I ever saw her in. She did, indeed, make Victoria's grief palpable.
In retrospect I realize I was very unfair to Cate Blanchett when I wrote last night. (J.W. slaps self up side the head and dictates memo to self: Don't write movie criticism while drinking scotch and water.) She did make a good young Elizabeth. I allowed my loathing for the unbelieveably bad history in that film to warp my judgment of her performance.
I'm afraid I can't help that. Tudor history is one of my passions, and the history as portrayed in Elizabeth is just ... wrong. The old BBC/Masterpiece Theatre Elizabeth R miniseries with Glenda Jackson is available on DVD (I own it on tape). Some dramatic license with history was taken there, too, of course, but less than in Elizabeth I (Mirren) and much less than in Elizabeth (Blanchett).
While I'm on the subject, I might as well put in my recommendation for the old Six Wives of Henry VIII, also a miniseries from the 1970s, which, obviously, preceded Elizabeth R, and is also available on DVD. Keith Michell, who played the king, gave the definitive screen portrayal of Henry VIII. Since I don't have premium cable channels, I'm not watching The Tudors, and from what I've read of it I probably wouldn't watch it anyway. Jonathan Rhys Meyers may be able to capture Henry emotionally, but he quite literally doesn't have the physical presence to be Henry VIII.
Sorry, this has strayed awfully far from Gwyneth Paltrow. I adored her in Shakespeare in Love. Her mother was and is a great beauty, and Gwyneth is, too.