Werner Herzog’s Queen of the Desert tells the true-life story of Gertrude Bell (Nicole Kidman), writer, explorer, and adventurer. After the tragic death of her fiancé (James Franco), Gertrude travels to the Middle East to find herself. Upon returning home, the naturally restless and curious Bell time and again returns to the desert for more misadventures.
Queen of the Desert will never be mistaken for one of Herzog’s best. Although it follows the same themes as a lot of his work (namely a prim and proper person traipsing through a harsh landscape), it’s just too laid back and prosaic to really knock your socks off. Most of Herzog’s lead characters are obsessed, mad, or obsessed to the point of madness. Bell is basically just a headstrong woman following her own star. Because of that, the film doesn’t cast the same spell as Herzog’s most memorable work.
That said, even when he’s having an off day, Herzog is still pretty good. The film remains watchable, even if it stops short of being completely captivating. Part of that has to do with the pacing, which is episodic to a fault. Bell will have some kind of personal setback, go out into the desert, find herself, return home, and then head on back out into the desert again. Luckily, these passages are entertaining more often than not.
It helps that the performances are solid. Kidman makes an ideal leading lady for this sort of thing. The character is equal parts high society debutante and well-traveled explorer, and Kidman does a fine job essaying both aspects of the character. Robert Pattinson is particularly amusing as Lawrence of Arabia, who lends Bell a hand on one of her adventures. Damien Lewis is also quite good as the reserved married man who carries a torch for Bell. Only Franco feels out of place playing the downtrodden, doomed fiancé.
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