Movie review: Mary queen of Scots is the woman boring

When we were little, I used to and my sisters not infrequently assess the film's value already after bolagsvinjetten. MGM's classic, we thought always guaranteed high quality: ”Lejonfilmer, they use to be good”!

I have not infrequently had a similar conditioned reflex around kostymfilm and historical dramas. Reflexes will be as familiar with the age of the right a little bit worn – and kostymdramer inhöstar now often prizes for their costumes, more rarely for its dramatic content.

I don't know when I would be so infernally dull that in my 124 minutes with ”Mary queen of Scots”. An endless, dreary two-hour long dialogue that not once claimed its originality.

after something small only which (theatre)director Josie Rourke or screenwriter Beau Willimon (best known for ”House of cards”) wanted to translate to our era, of this 470 year old historic drama, which basically is about the christian reformismen versus the catholic powers (how in the nightmare speaks to us today?).

Saoirse Ronan as Mary Stuart and Eileen O’Higgins as Mary Beaton. Photo: Liam Daniel/UPI

Josie Rourke think they may have found a strong modern feminist perspective in the complex relationship between Elizabeth I (the queen of England 1558-1603) and Mary Stuart (Scottish catholic heir to the throne) but it is so obviously constructed and overly-obvious that no one can take the ”modernisation” in the least seriously.

The sisterhood and the betrayal that Josie Rourke has the ambition to expose in this classic struggle for power is taking such a far-fetched and long-range historical detour is that when she eventually reached the heart of the matter, yes, when no one remembers anymore what was the actual case.

It happens nothing really of significance, and we know the significance of, to Mary Stuart of the head, we get served already in the opening scene. Thank you.

Margot Robbie as Elizabeth I is pale, tone-deaf, uttryckslös and cold. The male spouses in all the pieces are flimsy, conspiratorial and, historically, on the border to fördummade.

I can even hear the turkey kackla on distance, add to this that none of the people involved has a really good day at work, possibly the exception Saoirse Ronan as Mary Stuart. Her character shows in all cases, at times, that she bleeds for his royal competitor.

Margot Robbie as Elizabeth I is pale, tone-deaf, uttryckslös and cold. The male spouses in all the pieces are flimsy, conspiratorial and, historically, on the border to fördummade. And to furthermore there: as bad played.

It is in set design, environments and the photo an interesting track that tells a dirtier, darker, far more exciting story, but it correlates never intellectually with the story as actually told.

See more. See three other kostymdramer which revolves around british history: ”Elizabeth – the golden age” (1998), ”Shakespeare in love” (1998), ”The favourite” (2018, bioaktuell).

Read other movie reviews in the DN here