Nikolaj Arcel’s Royal Affair is finally a good movie about… royal life.
Period pieces often disappoint me, because they often tend to turn into costume dramas, lavish on fairy-tale scripts, be a pedestal for certain actresses (meaning : princess-divas), actors or directors, or dwell in self-satisfying stylism. Not so this movie. It’s a focused, calm, earnest, very well acted movie that manages to entertain without giving up its touching story to just those defaults mentionned.
Mads Mikkelsen is a great lead as the doctor between two worlds. The princess – Alicia Vikander – is a princess without being stupid (haha, yes – it’s worth mentionning). The king himself – Mikkel Boe Følsgaard – is one of the best spoiled brads I’ve seen lately on screen ;).
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