In fact, she doesn’t do anything except praying, tending to the King and his stepchildren, and hoping she might have a child of her own. Unlike the men around her, she doesn’t do any conspiring or maneuvering. She is established as being clever, determined and forward-thinking, but after those initial liaisons with Anne Askew, she has no more agency than the queens in any other Tudor drama.

Strangely, the most conventional aspect of “Firebrand” is its central character. Ainouz and his team achieve such authenticity with their richly colored fabrics and candle-lit interiors (shot by Helene Louvart) that it’s like a Holbein painting brought to life. Never has a film set in the 16th-century looked more convincing. It’s fashionable now for royal historical dramas to be strenuously modern and indeed postmodern, with their employment of pop songs, snazzy outfits and colorblind casting, whereas “Firebrand” manages to be just as innovative by going as far as possible in the opposite direction. Not that “Firebrand” is influenced by today’s television. ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ Review: Martin Scorsese’s Searing Drama Bursts Open a Devastating Chapter of U.S.

3), so they don’t want Catherine to have any more influence than he does. They are the uncles of the king’s son by Jane Seymour (wife No. The Seymour brothers (Eddie Marsan and Sam Riley, with beards big enough to require their own trailers) are friends of the Queen, but only up to a point. The political becomes intimately personal. All of the action is crammed into a few overcrowded rooms and corridors where there is always someone around to overhear whispered conversations. With the plague sweeping through London, the royal retinue has moved to a castle in the countryside (the film was shot on location in Haddon Hall in Derbyshire), so there are no crowd scenes or any of the sub-genre’s usual spectacular pomp and pageantry. Neither Catherine or any of the other courtiers can escape from his mood swings. When he grunts and groans on top of Catherine in bed, it’s less erotic than you might imagine any sex scene featuring Alicia Vikander and Jude Law could possibly be.

With an oozing, infected leg wound that sometimes has him screaming in agony or frothing in fury, Henry is a charismatic yet repulsive creation. He is hardly obese enough for the role, but he is horribly scary and funny as a cruel, paranoid despot who loves to be seen as a rollicking bon viveur while cheerily belittling everyone around him. ‘May December’ Review: Todd Haynes’ Latest Is a Playful Psychodramaīut then Henry returns earlier than expected from France, whereupon Catherine’s status plummets and Law steals the show.

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