Firebrand
“Alicia Vikander plays the titular “Firebrand” as Katherine Parr, the sixth and final wife of Henry VIII. But its representation of her as a free-thinking, vengeful radical is only occasionally fiery in itself.
The show is actually stolen by Jude Law as the corpulent, capricious king. Every time he’s on screen, Karim Aïnouz’s film roars into terrifying life. This usually gorgeous man subsumes himself to grotesquerie, giving a performance that is simultaneously hammy and horrifying.
Henrietta and Jessica Ashworth’s script (based on Elizabeth Fremantle’s historical fiction novel “Queen’s Gambit”) for Aïnouz’s film often becomes too much of a muted period drama though most of this is necessary. Katherine must keep quiet about her intellectual and religious freedom seeking after five wives have already died under similar suspicions, it’s literally life or death. Vikander has always been an actress of understatement, she rarely gets to show us something so close to nothingness as this character’s inner turmoil. The court eyes her every move, spies are everywhere.
This is particularly true during a brief 1544 window when Henry is off fighting in France and regent duties fall to Katherine. She had previously been acting as mother to his children from earlier marriages. Elizabeth (Junia Rees) and Edward (Patrick Buckley), the young heir apparent. But now she must chair meetings about boring bureaucratic stuff with advisers who eyeball one another suspiciously over her suggestions.
She also takes advantage of this time to visit a childhood friend turned charismatic preacher. Anne Askew (Erin Doherty, fiercely magnetic even in short supply), who has progressive ideas about the church while being both female and alive at once. “Firebrand” truly ignites at this early moment, when we can see how electric reconnecting with someone who really gets her maybe on every level is for Katherine. The suggestion of romantic flirtation hangs in the damp forest air.
Then it’s back to palace stuff, with whispers down dark corridors and hangers on strenuously playing both sides. Eddie Marsan is Edward Seymour, uncle to Prince Edward through his late sister Jane Seymour (Henry’s third wife), aiming with brother Thomas (Sam Riley) to stay in the good graces of the volatile king. There’s also an undercooked implication that Katherine and Thomas might have had a thing, which rouses the ire of the king’s arrogance. Mostly these men are called upon here to mumble their machinations into voluminous beards; Aïnouz hardly ever builds suspense out of them, so “Firebrand” is slow going surprisingly often given what’s at stake.
But what does work is how quickly a scene can go sour based on Henry’s whims. If the arrogant king feels crossed, court moments meant to be joyous become dangerous perhaps even deadly. Aïnouz also graphically shows how Henry’s increasingly infected leg causes him both physical and mental deterioration, it is a grisly thing to watch, we can practically smell it from here.
However, “Firebrand” also puts French cinematographer Hélène Louvart (“Never Rarely Sometimes Always,” “La Chimera”)’s prodigious gifts to more artful use in rendering the British countryside.”
A fog that sways around the mountains creates a somber atmosphere for the film, and even riding a horse across a sunny meadow can seem dark, especially with a woozy string heavy score by Dickon Hinchcliffe behind it.
It’s eventually a waiting game in “Firebrand” as Katherine tries to keep her schemes hidden long enough for Henry to die. The revisionist history is heavy once the king can no longer rage by flickering firelight. And while the final moments of the film may feel satisfying on an animal level, they don’t feel earned from a narrative one.
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