Official Trailer
Our Review
- Jude Law, Alicia Vikander, Eddie Marsan, Sam Riley
- September 6th 2024
- Karim Ainouz
Alicia Vikander plays Henry VIII’s sixth and final wife Katherine Parr in this work of historical fiction.
After a couple of years away from our cinema screens, Alicia Vikander is back as Katherine Parr in the period drama Firebrand.
In Karim Aïnouz’s film, Parr, the sixth and last wife of Henry VIII (Jude Law), is named regent and put in a position of power while he is away fighting battles abroad.
When the King returns home, he falls out of love with his wife and becomes paranoid and suspicious of her, claiming that she has betrayed him or committed heresy.
Parr has to take matters into her own hands to ensure her survival when he turns against her.
This sounds like a really tense and dramatic film about betrayal and the struggle for power and control within an abusive marriage. But it only becomes that in the second half and takes a very long time to get there.
The pacing in the first half is totally off. It is slow and you may become bored. Thankfully, things turn around when the King returns home – the narrative gains some momentum...
