In 1561, 18-year-old Catholic Queen Mary (Ronan) returns to Scotland after the death of her husband, the French monarch. In line for the English throne herself, she's a threat to her Protestant cousin Queen Elizabeth (Robbie), who offers her lover Dudley (Alwyn) as a husband in order to keep Mary in line. Instead, Mary marries her cousin Henry (Lowden), which strengthens her claim to a unified British crown. This gets stronger still when she gives birth to a son. But her half-brother James (McArdle) is plotting against her, and he's not the only one.

The film opens with Mary's execution in 1587, then cuts back to tell the story, focussing on the long-distance correspondence between these strong-willed women who are relentlessly manipulated by the vulture-like men around them. The contrast between them is striking, with Mary's youthful vigour and Elizabeth's haunted determination. And the film's depiction of their sisterhood is darkly moving, far more engaging than the political wrangling, which at times makes this feel like House of Cards meets Game of Thrones.

This is Ronan's show, and she finds extra intensity, beautifully layering Mary's steely edge with a joyous lightness. In a more difficult role, Robbie adds dark insecurity to Elizabeth's earthy resolve. Both are aware that they are not as powerful as they should be, so the respect they have for each other is pointed. In the supporting cast, Lowden and Alwyn are stand-outs as young men in the middle of the storm. While others all register strongly as men with very specific ambitions.

These masculine backroom dealings are pretty horrible, working to control these women for their own political benefit, bristling against their power. Willimon's script spends too much time on this soapy nastiness, neglecting some more engaging relational storytelling. And Rourke gives in to the big studios' trend of making movies look slick and dense rather than realistic. So the (historically suspect) sequence in which the two queens meet is both badly over-designed and emotionally thrilling.

themes, violence, sexuality

27.Nov.18