A Royal Affair (2012)
Average Rating: 7.2/10
Reviews Counted: 98
Fresh: 87 | Rotten: 11
A Royal Affair is a lavish and sumptuous costume drama with a juicy story to back it up.
Average Rating: 7.2/10
Critic Reviews: 29
Fresh: 24 | Rotten: 5
A Royal Affair is a lavish and sumptuous costume drama with a juicy story to back it up.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.9/5
User Ratings: 11,406
My Rating
Movie Info
A ROYAL AFFAIR is the true story of an ordinary man who wins the queen's heart and starts a revolution. Centering on the intriguing love triangle between the ever more insane Danish King Christian VII, the royal physician who is a man of enlightenment and idealism Struensee and the young but strong Queen Caroline Mathilda, A ROYAL AFFAIR is the gripping tale of brave idealists who risk everything in their pursuit of freedom for their people.(c) Magnolia Pictures
Watch It Now
Cast
-
Mads Mikkelsen
Johann Friedrich Struen... -
Alicia Vikander
Caroline Mathilde, Quee... -
Mikkel Boe Fřlsgaard
Christian VII, King Chr... -
Trine Dyrholm
Juliane Marie -
David Denick
Guldberg -
-
Cyron Bjřrn Melville
Enevold Brandt -
Bent Mejding
J. H. E. Bernstoff -
Harriet Walter
Augusta - Princess of W...
ADVERTISEMENT
A Royal Affair Trailer & Photos
All Critics (98) | Top Critics (29) | Fresh (88) | Rotten (11) | DVD (1)
For all its incident, A Royal Affair is slow and picturesquely framed - more of a languorously animated coffee-table book than a gripping drama.
Top CriticThe film ends not on a happy note, naturally, but on a moment of hope. Love may not conquer all, but it has a power all its own.
What a piece of work is this historical drama.
A Royal Affair covers plenty of stately ground, all in good time.
A fascinating, stately thriller.
A crowned-heads soap opera that balances effectively between pomp and melodramatic circumstance.
Out of some dry lines, Shakespearean allusions, and its playing with statecraft as stagecraft, this slowly emerges as more than just some ruffle-collared, frilly-cuffed throne-porn-there's a sharp quill and glinting eye behind the gilt-edged curtain.
A lust for power revealing, what else, but something rotten in the State of Denmark.
The performances are powerful and the set pieces are exquisite, but the conclusion will leave you feeling enormously agitated thanks to what seems like the encouragement of thickheadedness.
Denmark's Oscar nominee is a fact-inspired historical melodrama, but it's intriguing, elegantly shot, and well acted by the actors forming the romantic triangle.
The heady mix of power, politics, ideology, romance and corsets is a rare, royal feast.
It's all high-drama and in the hands of director Arcel, every little knot in this detailed needlepoint is handled to period perfection.
A sumptuous slice of period drama and real-life palace intrigue.
...a splendid demonstration of the old adage that political films are really not about the time they are set in, but the time in which they are made.
Although the brazen lovers, bellicose ministers and backstabbing handmaidens are familiar elements, the film is so handsomely mounted that we happily endure the ride until the turning of the screws in the tragic last act.
Perhaps there's only so much to be done with a costume drama about illicit affairs and would-be coups.
Gorgeously photographed if familiarly constructed, it's more or less catnip for urban foreign film aficionados and the NPR set, breathing life into period piece lust and intrigue.
The characters in the story are interesting, even if they are not quite as interesting as the historical people on which the characters in this film are based.
In the immortal words of King Louis XVI -- or was it Mel Brooks? -- it's good to be the king.
Despite the presence of illicit sex, insanity, a smallpox epidemic and a climactic double beheading, this is a rather bloodless 'Affair.'
Arcel directs with sympathy for all three of the main characters and doesn't make pure villains of the others.
It is certainly competent, lovely to look at, but leaves little lasting impression.
Sometimes falling in love can really change the world or at least the fate of a nation.
Audience Reviews for A Royal Affair
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
-
- Johann Friedrich Struensee: I think some people are so sealed inside their fate that they hide deep within their mind.
-
- Johann Friedrich Struensee: I am one of you.
-
- Johann Friedrich Struensee: I can do exactly as I wish.
-
- Queen Caroline Mathilda: You recognized me.
- Johann Friedrich Struensee: I would recognize you blind folded.
Discussion Forum
There are no discussion threads for A Royal Affair yet.
Latest News on A Royal Affair
May 7, 2013:
Digital Multiplex: Cloud Atlas, Pulp Fiction and moreThis week in streaming, we've got the latest Wachowskis' flick, a few Certified Fresh movies from...
March 26, 2013:
RT on DVD & Blu-Ray: Lincoln and Killing Them SoftlyThis week on home video, we've got an Oscar winner and another Oscar nominee, a comedy flop, a...
November 9, 2012:
Critics Consensus: Skyfall Is Certified FreshThis week at the movies brings only one new wide release: Skyfall, the latest James Bond adventure,...
What's Hot On RT
Movies Directed by Tyler Perry
Blockbuster news and reviews
Ellen Page in an intriguing new thriller
A gallery of classic books on film
Featured on RT
- Total Recall: Movies Directed by Tyler Perry 41
- Parental Guidance: The Great Gatsby, Jack Reacher, and Safe Haven 5
- Video Interview: Aftershock Producer Eli Roth 3
- Ray Harryhausen: 1920-2013 32
- Digital Multiplex: Cloud Atlas, Pulp Fiction and more 4
- RT on DVD and Blu-Ray: Jack Reacher, Mama, and Upstream Color 34
- Box Office Guru Wrapup: Iron Man 3 Soars Above the Rest 64
Top Headlines
-
Baz Luhrmann Wants DiCaprio for Hamlet
1
-
Bryan Singer Shooting X-Men: Days of Future Past in 3D and Simul-Cam
0
-
Avatar Sequels Shooting in 2014
2
-
Shane Black Confirmed for Doc Savage
0
-
Warner Bros. Plans New Dungeons & Dragons Movie
4
-
Adam Scott in Talks for Hot Tub Time Machine 2
0
-
Summit Already Thinking About Divergent Sequel
1
Fresh Links
Featured
10 Best Movie Trilogies
Pretty self-explanatory here; HitFix offers up their favorite trilogies of all time.
10 Jilted Movie Grooms
Feeling a little sappy? Here are 10 movie grooms who were left at the altar.
Weirdest Movie Siblings
From Twins to The Royal Tenenbaums, Moviefone explores cinema's oddest siblings.
50 Youth-Gone-Wild Movies
TimeOut lists the best movies about youth and rebellion.
30 Greatest Rock & Roll Movie Moments
Rolling Stone boldly proclaims the rockin'-est moments in cinema.
Promos
Follow RT on Twitter!
Spice up your feed with hourly Tomatometer updates!
Foreign Titles
- Die Königin und der Leibarzt (DE)
- A Royal Affair (En kongelig affaere) (UK)
