It is well known that corpulent crack pot King Henry VIII had six wives namely Katherine of Aragon Anne Boleyn, Katheryn Parr, Jane Seymour aka Dr Quinn Medicine Woman ….umm…….Tracey…..uuurrrrr ….and Chardonnay. (It’s little wonder we failed our history exam). Some he divorced, some he beheaded and, in the case of Kathryn Parr, outlived him and she is the Firebrand of the title. She was lucky to get that far as the film sets her out as an intellectual progressive and wanting religion for the people with the Bible translated from Latin that had kept it for the elite as intended by Bishop Gardiner (Simon Russell Beale).
To a certain extent she is fighting a patriarchy after having been left as Regent whilst Henry is off fighting the French. She leads meetings with a table of male advisors keen to persuade her of what they want rather than what she wants and it’s a breathe of fresh air for her when she visits a childhood friend Anne Askew ( Erin Doherty) preaching uprising to the peasants in the woods. There’s also a suspected spark of potential romance between the two friends but Kathryn knows the castle is awash with gossip and whispering spies and she must keep herself above reproach. Amongst those that she must keep at bay is Edward Seymour (Eddie Marsan) and his brother Thomas (Sam Riley in the sort of wiry pubic beard that looks like he’s painted his chin with glue and gone down on the ginger one from Girls Aloud) who are keen to stay on the Kings good side.
But the screen really lights up with Henry’s return and subsequent scenes played by Jude Law playing against type as a corpulent Kling with the mood swings of a PTSD riddled Vietnam vet going through a divorce. His scenes are great, one minute full of joie de vivre, the next livid, the next openly flirtatious with any woman and all in front of his wife with courtiers too afraid to say anything to the contrary. But it is where the firebrand of the title that is meant to be Kathryn is less well suited because Alicia Vikander, almost unrecognisable is a subdued character here with little sense of an iron will perhaps out of necessity knowing her possible fate if his previous wives are anything to go by.
But it’s a long game that Kathryn has to play with Henry’s health ailing and his leg infected with more maggots than the back street bin of a Southall takeaway and Firebrand plays with something of a revisionist attitude to the Kings demise. It’s a decent enough slice of history but doesn’t let its female lead live up to the films title.
related feature : Sam Riley chats about his new film, ‘She is Love’, improvising and being cast as Bond!
related feature : Jude Law is Hook in ‘Peter Pan and Wendy’
Here’s the Firebrand trailer……
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