Judi Dench in Mrs. Brown (1997)

Dench conveys it in a blink, that momentous shift when, aroused by the great ruddy burliness of the Scotsman who dares to address his sovereign as ''Woman,'' Queen Victoria allows herself a respite from the exhausting gloom of perpetual, mournful widowhood. And in that look, and all the glances she subsequently throws at Billy Connolly's barrel-chested John Brown (by turns shy, playful, sparkling, angry, astonished, and grateful), Dench works her greatness. Prepared for the caricature of a prim-faced, Victorian dumpling monarch dressed in black, we're delighted and moved all the more by Dench's spirited defense of HRH as a woman surprised by happiness. —LS