100 Movie Challenge 2017 - # 8: A Royal Affair

Director: Nikolaj Arcel
Genre: Drama/ Romance
Runtime: 128 minutes
Year: 2012
Starring: Mads Mikkelsen, Alicia Vikander, Mikkel Boe Følsgaard, David Dencik, Trine Dyrholm, Thomas W. Gabrielsson, William Jøhnk Nielsen, Cyron Bjørn Melville, Laura Bro, Zinnini Elkington, Erika Guntherová, Søren Malling, John Martinus, Bent Mejding, Rosalinde Mynster, Karin Rørbeck, Klaus Tange

Description: A young queen (Alicia Vikander), who is married to an insane king, falls secretly in love with her physician (Mads Mikkelsen) - and together they start a revolution that changes a nation forever.

Review: King Christian VII was barely 17 when he became king in the 18th century. He ruled for a long time, but he had an unstable mental health and people claimed he was schizophrenic. This is the image we seen in “A Royal Affair”, that cause a lot of discussion in home country Denmark. The biopic by director Nikolaj Arcel focusses mainly on the secret affair his wife Caroline Marhilde had with physician Johann Friedrich Struensee.
Caroline was the princess of Wales and only 15 when she became queen of Denmark. Her marriage with Christian was arranged and she had to move to Denmark. Caroline and Christian only did their royal duty, which is more to say for Caroline.
The new queen discovers that the rules, rights and censorship isn’t far from what they had in the middle ages. Caroline tries to makes something of the forced marriage, but eventually she is only there to give Denmark a heir. She even starts to hate Christian. He drinks, gets visits from prostitutes and has strange ideas.
When a new physician arrives, things change. Christian finds him very interesting and is easily influenced by his ideas. And Caroline finds him interesting for a whole different reason. Caroline and Johann start a passionate affair. From this moment the influence of Johann is clearly visible.
Mads Mikkelsen excels in his role as confident doctor. He isn’t an opportunist, but a free thinker. The Danish aren’t used to someone like him. The narration of Caroline feels sometimes a little but melodramatic, but “A Royal Affair” is a very solid royal drama.

Rating: 4/ 5