A Royal AffairMovie Reviews


Go
Avg. Critic Score: 73 out of 100 Generally favorable reviews Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
16 OK for kids 16+
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 90
    Wall Street Journal | Joe Morgenstern

    With its sumptuous settings, urgent romance and intellectual substance, A Royal Affair is a mind-opener crossed with a bodice-ripper. Read full review

  • 88
    St. Louis Post-Dispatch | Joe Williams

    Although the brazen lovers, bellicose ministers and backstabbing handmaidens are familiar elements, the film is so handsomely mounted that we happily endure the ride until the turning of the screws in the tragic last act. Read full review

  • 88
    Philadelphia Inquirer | Steven Rea

    Historical drama of the highest order - teeming with big ideas, and anchored by the nicely nuanced performances of Vikander and Mikkelsen. Read full review

  • 88
    Charlotte Observer | Lawrence Toppman

    Writers Rasmus Heisterberg and Nicolaj Arcel are known in America for the original version of "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo." This film is the exact opposite: stately instead of propulsive, emotionally warm instead of chilly, lit by candles and sun instead of flashlights and neon. Read full review

  • 88
    Chicago Sun-Times | Roger Ebert

    A big budget historical drama that carries Denmark's hopes into the Oscar season. It provides still more exposure for the rising Danish star Mads Mikkelsen, the latest male sex symbol of the art house crowd. Read full review

  • 88
    USA Today | Claudia Puig

    Takes a fascinating chapter in Danish history, little-known to general audiences, and presents it engagingly. Read full review

  • 85
    NPR | Ella Taylor

    While it's lavish and lush in all the expected costume-drama ways, A Royal Affair never bogs down in period detail. What drives the film, along with great acting, is the appetite of director Nikolaj Arcel and his boisterous co-writer Rasmus Heisterberg ("I want a fun queen!" wails Christian) for the queasy workings of political gamesmanship both above and below board. Read full review

  • 80
    New York Daily News | Elizabeth Weitzman

    Mikkelsen's unconventional features and intense talent lend a compelling edge to this expansive period piece. Read full review

  • 75
    Boston Globe | Ty Burr

    A Royal Affair is tosh but it's ripely entertaining tosh, with emotions as flamboyant as the window treatments. There is nothing like a Dane. Read full review

  • 75
    Entertainment Weekly | Lisa Schwarzbaum

    The storytelling in A Royal Affair is traditional bordering on square. But the historical drama itself - about how an idealistic German doctor influenced a silly king, romanced a queen, and brought the Age of Enlightenment to 18th-century Denmark - is kind of amazing. Read full review

View more reviews for A Royal Affair on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says OK for kids 16+ Hefty historical drama has some racy, violent moments.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that A Royal Affair -- an engrossing, epic Danish drama based on true historical events -- is filled with the sort of intrigue and dalliances that pepper most accounts of monarchies. Women and men bed partners they're not married to; women are berated and ostracized for actions that men aren't; power corrupts. Expect some drinking and laudanum use, love scenes that show heaving cleavage and naked backsides, and minimal swearing (in subtitles).
  • Families can talk about how A Royal Affair portrays women's options during the time it takes place. Why do you think the queen stayed with the king?
  • Talk about the Age of Enlightenment and how its influence is depicted here. Are the rights and freedoms that its supporters fought for still relevant in this day and age?
  • How is this movie similar to, or different from, other Hollywood depictions of the ruling class and the monarchy?
  • How closely do you think A Royal Affair adheres to history? How many liberties with the facts do you think a movie like this can take? Why might filmmakers decide to do that?
The good stuff
  • message true2 Positive messages: Political intrigue rules the day, but true love provides a respite. Also, the values of the Age of Enlightenment (freedom, rational thought, etc.) are emphasized.
  • rolemodels true2 Positive role models: Queen Caroline Mathilda was a knowledge seeker who wanted to be enlightened and took great risks to free her people. She did, however, have an affair (her husband didn't seem much interested in her).
What to watch for
  • violence false3 Violence: Crowds of villagers and disgruntled soldiers storm the castle; later, two prisoners are shown walking toward the gallows. A bloody basket is presumably there to catch their heads when they're beheaded. A woman slaps a man who's disrespectful of her. A man is beaten to death; his bloodied body is discovered atop a fence-like structure.
  • sex false4 Sexy stuff: A woman's backside is shown while she's astride a man; his head, shoulders, and chest are also visible. Men and women steal kisses from one another; scantily clad women are shown running around a house of ill repute.
  • language false1 Language: "Pissant," "hell" (in subtitles).
  • consumerism false0 Consumerism: Not an issue
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false3 Drinking, drugs and smoking: Both royals and non-royals lose themselves in drink. A woman uses laudanum to calm herself; later, she appears to have become addicted to its soporific effects.
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

A Royal Affair Featured Trailers + Video Clips

Watch All Videos