You can either look at what it is, and what it isn't, and in either case, it's hard not to think of the missed opportunities.
What it isn't, is an attempt to accurately portray any of the persons, maybe with the exception of the king. They are characters. This goes for any and all "historical" movies, but in this case it's even more obvious, since the main protagonist (Struensee) and the main antagonist (Guldberg), are just that. Protagonist and antagonist, ideal and caricature, white hat, black hat. The reason this is especially disappointing, is that both of them, especially Struensee, were really very interesting humans - faults and all. Whilst the movies purports to feature both English, Danish, German and French, the movie has exactly one line in any of these languages, which is really disappointing, since it would have been interesting to show people the multilingual court of the time. Instead of showing us Struensee and Bernstorff as foreigners, we are merely TOLD that they are.
What it is, is just a very run-of-the-mill costume drama, with a predictable climax. As I said, the characters are either good or bad. Any and all opportunity of showing inner struggle, for example how Struensee wanted to do good, but ended up grabbing power for himself, is lost. The forbidden romance is simply justified here. The only character to encompass both good and bad is the king himself, swinging from rudeness and lewdness to being adorably naive and brave. It's such a shame that the movie could not have been about him.
All in all, the movie is wholly unremarkable as far as the story goes, which is really disappointing when you think of the actual story this is based on. I can't help but think: Is this really all they could get from this?
What it isn't, is an attempt to accurately portray any of the persons, maybe with the exception of the king. They are characters. This goes for any and all "historical" movies, but in this case it's even more obvious, since the main protagonist (Struensee) and the main antagonist (Guldberg), are just that. Protagonist and antagonist, ideal and caricature, white hat, black hat. The reason this is especially disappointing, is that both of them, especially Struensee, were really very interesting humans - faults and all. Whilst the movies purports to feature both English, Danish, German and French, the movie has exactly one line in any of these languages, which is really disappointing, since it would have been interesting to show people the multilingual court of the time. Instead of showing us Struensee and Bernstorff as foreigners, we are merely TOLD that they are.
What it is, is just a very run-of-the-mill costume drama, with a predictable climax. As I said, the characters are either good or bad. Any and all opportunity of showing inner struggle, for example how Struensee wanted to do good, but ended up grabbing power for himself, is lost. The forbidden romance is simply justified here. The only character to encompass both good and bad is the king himself, swinging from rudeness and lewdness to being adorably naive and brave. It's such a shame that the movie could not have been about him.
All in all, the movie is wholly unremarkable as far as the story goes, which is really disappointing when you think of the actual story this is based on. I can't help but think: Is this really all they could get from this?