Oct 20, 2024

It took a while but I finally got to see Firebrand, the movie about Katherine Parr; sixth wife of Henry VIII.

Overall I enjoyed it. But did it live up to my expectations? Yes and no.

The bad:
• Too many clichés
– Bunch of Tudors riding across a modern-looking open field
– Revellers performing and dancing in front of bored king on throne
– Tudor court = political intrigue
• Too much messing about with known history – and missing out on the real dramatic scene of how Katherine managed to turn Henry back onto her side, and how he then gave Gardner his come-uppance (a scene I was waiting for and never got). Instead we got two ‘unhistorical’ plot devices – neither of which actually happened (I won’t spoil it for you by saying what they were. You’ll know…)
• Poor editing – it was as if the editor got bored with a scene and cut away just as something interesting was about to happen
• What happened to the Thomas Seymour relationship? He was the love of her life; here they just seem to be quite good friends
– I wasn’t sure about the girl playing Princess Mary – given how well Elizabeth was cast, I felt Mary looked nothing her portraits.

But there was also much to like:
• Casting and acting was good
– Particularly Jude Law, very believable as the vile king with the stinky leg, and playing very much against type
– Alicia Vikander was good, but a bit vanilla at times – she could have played Katherine as a bit more forceful
–  The girl playing Elizabeth looked exactly as one would expect the young Elizabeth to look
–  Erin Doherty as Anne Askew was very good – she does a good line in strong, quirky women (she was Princess Anne in The Crown)
– They made a brave attempt at the weird beards we see in the portraits (particularly the Seymour brothers), although they could have been applied a bit more realistically
• The atmosphere and lighting felt period-correct – not over-lit
• The stinky leg was well played – apparently the king could be smelled from half way across a large building.

Probably not one to buy on DVD but to watch occasionally on streaming or terrestrial if it comes on in future.

 

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