Henry VIII’s wives have provided plenty of entertainment over the years, given the real-life soap opera of their oft-short marriages to the most significant king in English history. There have been regular films and television dramas, and the hit musical Six, currently playing at Auckland’s Civic Theatre, has them as a girl group.
Individually, Anne Boleyn has always dominated the portrayals of Henry’s spouses on page and screen. Firebrand is about wife No 6 ‒widow Katherine Parr.
Based on Elizabeth Fremantle’s 2013 novel Queen’s Gambit, it’s part-biopic, part-feminist revision.
The twice-widowed, 31-year-old Tudor gentlewoman married Henry when he was 52 and limping through his ulcerated twilight years with a forceful libido and frightening arrogance.
She is played by Swedish actress Alicia Vikander (Oscar winner for The Danish Girl) who knows how to handle Jude Law’s grotesque Henry with the odd provocation or occasional challenge but still has to keep her nose clean if she’s to keep her head.
Vikander’s childless Queen is strong-willed, intelligent and charming as she leads the King’s Privy Council in his absence and lovingly raises her step-children – all possible future heirs.
Katherine is cautiously compassionate with an old friend fighting for justice against the Crown, and her decorum belies a prior fondness for Thomas Seymour (Sam Riley with an adhesive ginger beard) whose hand she once refused but, whom followers of Tudor history will know, she went on to marry after Henry’s death.
Meanwhile, Law’s brilliantly ghastly rendition of Henry Tudor – whether he’s grunting like an animal in the marital bed or flirting with a young filly in front of his humiliated wife – is a vanity-free breath of fresh air in portrayals of the infamous monarch.
Catering to audiences less au fait with their Tudor history, there is intermittent voiceover by the young Princess Elizabeth (Titian-haired newcomer Junia Rees) with pedestrian but necessary exposition. There are passing references to Boleyn’s execution, and Jane Seymour’s death in childbirth.
Young Spanish-British actress Patsy Ferran is a terrific Princess Mary, indignant that her own mother, Henry’s first bride, was cruelly cast out.
As Fremantle did, Firebrand takes historical fact and throws in some reasonable assumptions, before climaxing with a third-act flight of fancy, which may enrage purists.
In his first English-language film, Brazilian director Karim Aïnouz delivers a fascinating peek into domestic palace life. The depiction of Katherine’s power games echoes those of Cate Blanchett in 1998′s Elizabeth, a far superior and more exciting film, but one that makes a nice double-bill with Firebrand.
It’s in those moments when Queen Katherine carefully navigates her perilous relationship and the period’s political pitfalls that demonstrate why she deserves her own story.
Rating out of five: ★★★½
Firebrand, directed by Karim Aïnouz, is in cinemas now.
