Mary Queen of Scots (2018). Rated: 15.
Historical/period/epic
Star rating: 3 out of 5, worth watching
Synopsis
With the Scottish throne vacant after the King’s death, the heir to the throne is Queen Mary of France (Saoirse Ronan).
Young, beautiful, headstrong and intelligent but with a deep emotional need for love, she arrives to a rapturous reception and quickly establishes a louche, dissolute court.
Despite living hundreds of miles away, her cousin Queen Elizabeth I (Margot Robbie) is beguiled and enchanted by accounts of her and defends Mary’s many questionable political decisions, despite pressure from the English government to marry Mary off to someone the politicians can use to control her.
Mary marries her own choice of husband (Jack Lowden), a decision that is the catalyst for her swift, disastrous fall from grace.
Review by @Reelreviewer
Historians and culture pedants have been coughing on the dust of accumulated, centuries old documents in the run up to this epic being released.
Their quibbles are long-established.
Most film, TV and stage accounts of these two different - although closely related - female power players who reigned at a moment in history when patriarchy ruled supreme tend to take more than a lion's share of dramatic licence.
Ronan and Robbie are both in fine fettle as two women who never loved each other, but admired and were beguiled by the other for different reasons.
This adaptation at least gets across the feeling that, in another age and with less male interference, they might have worked together quite effectively.
For more, read my full review: http://bit.ly/maryqueenscots2018
Cast & credits
Director: Josie Rourke. 2hr 4mins (124mins). Focus Features/Perfect World Pictures/Working Title Films.
Producers: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Debra Hayward.
Writer: Beau Willimon.
Camera: John Mathieson.
Music: Max Richter.
Sets: James Merifield.
Saoirse Ronan, Margot Robbie, Jack Lowden, Gemma Chan, Joe Alwyn, David Tennant, Martin Compton, Adrian Lester, Brendan Coyle, Ismael Cruz Cordova.
Image: image: Focus Features/Universal Pictures
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