FILM FRENZY

Mads Mikkelsen and Alicia Vikander in A Royal Affair (Photos: Magnolia Pictures)

By Matt Brunson

(This new feature is part of a rotating series that digs into the past and uncovers a movie as follows: Two-Star Tuesday for a movie that earns either two or two-and-a-half stars; One-Star Wednesday for a movie that earns either one or one-and-a-half stars; Three-Star Thursday for a movie that earns either three or three-and-a-half stars; and Four-Star Friday for a movie that earns four stars.)

A ROYAL AFFAIR (2012)
★★★½ (out of four)
DIRECTED BY Nikolaj Arcel
STARS Mads Mikkelsen, Alicia Vikander

An Academy Award nominee for Best Foreign Language Film, the Danish drama A Royal Affair features all the snug wigs and tight corsets one might expect to see in a movie centered around an 18th century monarch and his court. Presumably, those form-fitting clothing accessories are loose enough to allow the blood to flow, a condition it would share with this period saga that easily swats away any myopic claims of stately stuffiness by emerging as a passionate and hard-charging history lesson.

Apparently adhering to the actual facts more closely than anyone would have assumed, this starts with Caroline (Alicia Vikander), the sister of Britain’s King George III, journeying to Denmark and marrying King Christian VII (Mikkel Boe Følsgaard). It’s not long before the newly minted Queen discovers that there’s something not quite right with her husband’s mental state. Is he insane? Schizophrenic? Emotionally stunted? The film doesn’t answer because recorded history itself doesn’t recall the cause.

Between his womanizing and his grotesque treatment of her, Caroline grows to loathe Christian, and she initially harbors ill will toward Johann Struensee (Mads Mikkelsen), the German physician who arrives on the scene to tend to His Majesty. Over time, Struensee, a radical progressive, earns the complete trust of Christian and the heart of Caroline, a precarious position that provides ample fodder for the conservative politicians who don’t agree with the good doctor’s desires to, among other reforms, abolish serfdom, outlaw torture, and (gasp!) impose taxes on the wealthy for the betterment of the lower classes.

Mikkelsen, perhaps still best known to American audiences for his villainous turn as Le Chiffre in Casino Royale, delivers a thoughtful performance as a decent man whose political naivety dooms him, while Vikander, soon to become a Best Supporting Actress Oscar winner for 2015’s The Danish Girl, offers an aching, bruised turn as a woman trapped in an impossible situation. As for Følsgaard, he’s superb in his feature-film debut as King Christian, winning a handful of major European awards for a performance that was filmed while he was still in drama school. In the immortal words of King Louis XVI — or was it Mel Brooks? — it’s good to be the king.