Die Königin des Nordens

High quality all the way. Excellent actors and touching story. The best movie I have seen in a long time. I had wet eyes by the acting and the story. Trine Dyrholm is just incredible.

Its a pitty, that this history is so boring. Over 120 minuts of flat acting and slow theatrical interpretations, sometimes like fake ones. "Margrete" follows one storyline with dedicated, occasionally leaden fidelity, proceeding at a pace that might be appropriate in a 20-hour season of television, but that feels unusually indulgent in a feature film. It has almost everything one expects from these proposals: intrigue, family conflicts, sex, violence, jealousy, betrayal, etc. What it does not have is a clear meaning or purpose. Spectacular ambiance, cinematography, arts, etc. Historical and political heft to justify the epic scope of the filmmaking.

With the Kalmar Union still in it's infancy, Queen Margrete (Trine Dyrholm) is trying to keep the Danes, Swedes and Norwegians aligned under the nominal kingship of her adopted son Erik (Morten Hee Andersen) in the face of the increasing fear of aggression from the neighbouring Germans. This task is suddenly made much more difficult when a pretender to his throne is unveiled. This gent (Jakob Oftebro) claims to be the son of the queen, and though she certainly had a son it was thought that he had been murdered many years earlier. The Norwegians are quick to support this new claim, but she is less inclined to panic and/or to execute summary justice - and that rouses suspicions about the stranger's true identity amidst the nobles and manages to antagonise her adopted son who has no intention of surrendering his throne. Adding to the pressures building on the Queen, Erik is set to marry the daughter of King Henry IV of England to cement a relationship that could help guarantee everyone's safety - but will the English want their royal dynasty married into the wrong family? Gradually, we all realise that there has been quite a degree of conspiring and lying going on for many years that spreads right to the heart of not just the kingdom, but to an influential church that cannot be guaranteed to do the right thing if it's not in it's own interests. This is quite a well produced and paced historical drama that illustrates quite engagingly the difficulties faced by anyone in holding together this loose confederation of warring nations. The fact that she was a woman doesn't appear to have inhibited her power, indeed her guile and shrewdness appear to have been quite well respected by those who appreciated her goals for unity and peace. To that end Dyrholm delivers competently, as does Søren Malling as the duplicitous priest and a solid supporting cast. It's perhaps a little verbose and also a little tame at times, but it's a period of history that is interesting to discover more about as the viking nations emerged from their raping and pillaging phase into something altogether more cohesive and important in the grand scheme of European politics. It's worth a watch if you're interested in (theatrical) Nordic history.

Karmar Union of Norway, Sweden (included Finland) & Denmark headed by Queen Margrete (Margaret) of Denmark (ruled from 1380s until 1412). Wary of Germany an English royalty daughter, Philippa (age about 12), in 1406 is married to King Erik (adopted son of Margrete) to provide an alliance with England. Margrete's birth son, Olaf, is the main mystery when he shows up after 15 years, after supposedly dying, to claim the throne. A good job of cramming a lot of potentially confusing history into 2 hours.

"Margrete the First" (2021)

'Margrete the First' is the epitome of an epic Danish tale. With monarchs, battle strife, magnificent costumes and big politics. All in all, a magnificent staging that is impressive. The acting was gripping, here one must especially highlight Trine Dyrholm's interpretation of Margrete 1. However, some of the lines could at times seem a bit too theatrical and fake. Morten Hee Andersen's role as the naive and arrogant Prince Erik of Pomerania, unfortunately, fell flat on its face for me. It seemed as if he was in a different universe than the rest of the characters, whether it was Morten's portrayal or the manuscript is hard to know.

With a feature length of 2 hours, it is always a challenge to keep the viewers' attention, here Margrete the 1st unfortunately does not succeed either. A strong start and end, does not excuse for a drawn out and unfocused mid point. Especially one storyline that I do not want to spoil, did not lead to much and ended abruptly. It could quickly have been explained with a scene or two. The worst thing a movie can do is waste the audience time.

I personally watch movies to be entertained with an exciting and gripping story. The story was fascinating, the production magnificent and the acting was mostly excellent. I missed a more focused narrative, with fewer plotlines, better pacing, and less navel-gazing. The story as it is portrayed here would have worked better as a new Sunday drama series.

Rating: 6/10.