English princess Caroline (Alicia Vikander) marries the not-so-stable Danish king Christian VII (Mikkel Boe Følsgaard) for political reasons. He is more interested in hookers than he is interested in his wife or the country. So he decides that he wants a fun queen and tells his doctor/advisor Johann Friedrich Struensee (Mads Mikkelsen) to make her queen fun.
However, what the obnoxious Christian didn’t foresee is that while spending time together, Friedrich and Caroline will fall in love and complicate things remarkably not just for Christian, but the whole-country.
Seductive, Intriguing & Award-Winning: A Royal Affair
The plot summary above is solely based on the trailer as I haven’t had a chance to see the movie yet. However the trailer totally hooked me: I love passionate love stories and a good period piece. While I don’t really like the idea of cheating in a normal relationship, I love stories where it’d be a sin not to cheat (see Revenge, or The Ledge for examples)- meaning the marriage wasn’t voluntary, divorce seemed unlikely or the husband is a (psychotic) jerk.
I’m also highly entertained by the “spend time with my wife/girlfriend (or husband/boyfriend) while I do something else” premises. We all know who gets the girl/guy in these stories.
And as for A Royal Affair, you don’t just tell your older, charismatic, sexy and smart advisor (Mads Mikkelsen) to make your queen fun and have the nerve to be surprised when you realize they are sleeping together. Just by looking at the trailer, I can say I’d be sleeping with Struensee too. Any sane, miserable-in-her-marriage- queen would.
It’ll be fun to watch Struensee making the “queen” fun, while having quite a lot of fun himself. And when people find out, it will also cause a lot of complications for the nation that Christian may not have the chops to deal with.
*
Directed by Nikolaj Arcel and based on the novel by Bodil Steensen-Leth.
Rated at 7.7 on imdb and winner of 2 Silver Berlin Bears, I’m so looking forward to see A Royal Affair (En kongelig affære). What about you?
[pro-player width=’530′ height=’253′ type=’video’]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g11xkVjl7bM [/pro-player]
Also on Mads Mikkelsen:
After the Wedding starring Mads Mikkelsen – 2007 Best Foreign Film Oscar Nominee