90% A Royal Affair

All Critics (49) | Top Critics (13) | Fresh (44) | Rotten (5)

It does a fine job of dramatizing the pure power of ideas and the attraction of like minds. And what happens when those ideas, and that attraction, runs counter to the pleasures of the most powerful man in the land.

"A Royal Affair" is basically a good-looking set of historical Cliffs Notes.

This highly polished costume drama is exceptionally well-made and a model of intelligent restraint, but it is also unapologetically earnest and a bit on the bloodless side.

With its sumptuous settings, urgent romance and intellectual substance, A Royal Affair is a mind-opener crossed with a bodice-ripper.

Unfortunately it never fully comes to life.

While it's lavish and lush in all the expected costume-drama ways, A Royal Affair never bogs down in period detail.

Epic and intriguing, it's a cautionary tale that emerges as one of the best foreign films of the year.

It's a film about a society at a crossroads, with two competing visions of the future being hashed out against a backdrop of political intrigue. Sound familiar?

Hefty historical drama has some racy, violent moments.

Beautifully acted and lush look at a real-life court threesome in Denmark at the end of the 18th century indeed pleases.

Looks sumptuous and contains meaty, provocative ideas. It's a feast of a film, one that will send you scurrying for background on the real people behind this true story.

Director Nikolaj Arcel, who also co-wrote the screenplay, stages the action in a brisk, modern mode that makes 'A Royal Affair' easily digestible and satisfying.

...while Mads Mikkelsen has become an international star and has the sexier role here, it is Mikkel Boe F?lsgaard who really astonishes, always keeping us wondering if the King's madness is real or, at least in part, a tactic.

A richly conceived and compelling historical drama about two soulmates who try to rock the authorities and bring radical change to eighteenth century Denmark.

At least for a while, Arcel manages to animate the long-settled debate, at least until the inevitability of its resolution becomes too clear to overlook.

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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/en_kongelig_affaere/

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