I loved A Royal Affair without any reservations and highly recommend it. First, A Royal Affair’s storyline is riveting and perfect. Even though A Royal Affair is framed as a visual depiction of a mother, Queen Caroline Mathilde, writing to her children about her life and shows other characters’ perspective, because she is trying to influence her children and has relationships with these characterswhen she could have gotten the information, it is completely plausible that these events could be depicted in the film.
Second, A Royal Affair primarily takes place in Denmark, which I am a huge fan of, so any historical movie that gives perspective on how Denmark became the country it is today teaches valuable lessons for those who don’t live there. Separation of church and state is key.
Third, A Royal Affair’s love story is that the way to a woman’s heart is through her mind-books! Fourth, A Royal Affair is ideologically fascinating and complex. A Royal Affair shows that people with power feel and can be helpless, and freedom can have its drawbacks. Maybe people don’t want to be free. Fifth, when in doubt, make the woman the lightning rod for anger to keep your power.
Sixth, A Royal Affair is a visually sumptuous historical period movie. Seventh, A Royal Affair plays a perfect balancing act in its portrayal of King Christian VII. A Royal Affair could have just made him a cruel, capricious, mad villain, but A Royal Affair also takes great pains to show his capacity for happiness, his need for affection, his frustration and awareness of how much he is despised and his desire to accomplish something. King Christian VII is treated as fully human, not a one-dimensional character.
Eighth, A Royal Affair stars two amazing actors: Alicia Vikander, who is emerging as a solid lead in other films such as Ex Machina, and everyone’s favorite and hottest cannibal, Mads Mikkelsen. After Hannibal ended, I moved A Royal Affair up in my queue, but I still did not get to watch it right away. Big mistake! (Side note: how hot is Daniel Craig that I did not immediately notice how hot Mads and Eva Green are in Casino Royale. Damn.) It is nice that a British person is played by a Swedish actress. Usually foreign equals British actor.
Please don’t let the subtitles dissuade you from watching A Royal Affair.