REVIEW - A ROYAL AFFAIR

After establishing a pleasantly delicate tone in early scenes, this historical drama succumbs eventually to genre cliches, interpreting an engaging true story with banal storytelling. Nikolaj Arcel displays sensitivity to the complexities of the situations at hand, but frustratingly declines to cultivate these complexities; he gives us interesting characters, informs us of how interesting they are and moves on to the next dramatic event in the timeline. Wouldn't it be much more satisfying to know why they're so interesting? He achieves admirable clarity in this process, yes, and manages a sizeable cast too, but this is at the expense of almost all elaboration on topics which would surely have been compelling indeed. The objective seems to be to get to the end of the story as efficiently as possible, checking off requisite stock scenes along the way: the lovers' dance at the masquerade ball, the embarrassing feud at dinner, and many others too dull to be recalled currently. Mikkel Boe Folsgaard's King Christian is presented as a most absorbing figure, erratic and inconsiderate yet charming and philanthropic...were that the film would only let one fully absorb him - the details of his mind alone would be ample material for a film of equal length (and higher quality), so fascinating they seem to be, and they are left remarkably unexplored by the filmmakers here. It's photographed tastefully and the visual design is less ostentatious than in some similar English-language products, and thankfully so, even if it only contributes to the sombre mood. The score does become rather oppressive towards the end, and the screenplay is frequently so didactic it's a wonder any of the actors navigate it with such dignity. As is often the case with true stories, the choice is either to manufacture an ending or to let it tail off and conclude with text describing what happened next, which is what Arcel opts for - it happens that this sounds like a similarly good story, although any more of this turgid stodge and I would have been pining for one of those beheadings.