Wick's Review

Summary - Really Great 4.5

A Royal Affair is truly regal, with a King, his Queen, their courtiers, grand councils and balls in castles.

• Infidelity so grand – so right – it was ultimately forgiven by the cuckold King of Denmark.
• History made, the Enlightenment brought to the Danes and their colony of Norway.
• Romantic history in the extreme. Royally romantic. “Live from 1772” Seems like it anyway.
• All of it real, a true story. Better yet – one of the great true stories.

Princess Movies have a new member in their esteemed royal court, right up there with The Young Victoria.

Mads Mikkelsen’s man of the Enlightenment – the heroic German Dr. Struensee – leavens A Royal Affair. This is the man who ended serfdom in the great European power that was Denmark in the 1700s. The Man

Corresponded with Voltaire … & … shagged the beautiful Queen of Denmark – a life very well lived.

Really great period pieces come along maybe twice a year. A Royal Affair joins Lincoln in 2012’s crown.

Acting - Really Great 4.5

Alicia Vikander anchors the movie as Queen Caroline Mathilde. Beautiful but not spectacularly so, she demonstrates a grace and fortitude that can only be described as regal. Her character is of British birth, while Vikander herself bears a resemblance to Emily Blunt’s Young Victoria.

Caroline Mathilde was sister to George III, the crazy King of England during the American Revolution. IOW, her brother and her husband were tragic Kings who went mad. Wow.

Mads Mikkelsen gives the movie star power in a charismatic performance as Enlightenment hero Johann Friedrich Struensee. Mikkelsen – a first rate Bond villain in Casino Royale – should cross the pond more.

Mikkel Boe Følsgaard is sufficiently unbalanced as the mentally ill King Christian VII. He’s especially touching as he wrestles with how to deal with being cuckolded by his manly idol. That’s him in the background of the poster above, looking crazy. Seeing Mads Mikkelsen in front of him, no wonder he realizes he’s not the better man.

The supporting cast is uniformly strong.

• Trine Dyrholm as the scheming Dowager Queen Juliane Marie
• David Dencik as the conniving Old Guard politician Guldberg. Think Ian Fleming took notice of this real historical villain?
• Thomas W. Gabrielsson as the fallen Count Rantzau
• Cyron Melville as the weak nobleman Brandt.
• Harriet Walter as the Princess of Wales, mother to Denmark’s Queen Caroline and England’s King George III. A German herself, her daughter married a crazy Danish King, then carried on a torrid affair with a German Doctor, while her son became the crazy King of England. Euronuts – you could call them.

Film - Really Great 4.5

Period piece extraordinaire, with sumptuous, perfecto production values. Just the horse-drawn carriages are outstanding, let alone the liveried footmen.

Direction and Play get dinged a bit for tarting up the story, one that’s plenty extraordinary without added romance-movie cliches. The cliches do work however when directed by Nikolaj Arcel from Bodil Steensen-Leth’s novel Prinsesse af blodet.

Edge - Risqué 2.4

The movie briefly shows the severe cruelty of 18th century feudal society, including a serf tortured to death and the walk of the condemned as the heroic Dr. Struensee meets the executioner’s axe.

Happily, the horror is preceded by scenes of deep passion between Queen Caroline and Dr. Struensee.

Reality - Glib 1.2

Pre-French Revolution, when property rights looked to be the simple problem. Thus pre-Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France. Thus facile comparisons to today’s political economics are less apt than they appear. Wealth generated by free enterprise is the antithesis of wealth in the pre-market system then extant. Sclerosis due to corruption and privilege was the system back then.

That said, when the Enlightenment leads to criminal transgression, you can be pretty sure you’re on the side of the angels.

1 Comment

• Wick Sep 20, 2015 1:54PM

  Regarding BrianSez’s Review
  Happy you liked it.

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