THE GIRL KING (Mika Kaurismäki). 104 minutes. Some subtitles. Opens Friday (September 23). See listings. Rating: NN
Stuffy and stilted right from the start, The Girl King is the kind of movie people think of when they hear “international co-production” – a bland historical drama where great actors from various nations sit around looking serious while trying to deliver re-translated English dialogue.
Finnish director Mika Kaurismäki (L.A. Without A Map) and Canadian screenwriter Michel Marc Bouchard (Tom At The Farm) take the complex, fascinating life of Queen Christina of Sweden – who led her nation through the Thirty Years’ War, subverted the demands of a gendered role and converted to Catholicism at the age of 28 – and boil it down to scene after scene of court intrigue and philosophical jibber-jabber. (She was an admirer of René Descartes.)
The filmmakers are really only interested in the smouldering flirtation between Christina (a steely Malin Buska) and her lady-in-waiting Ebba Sparre (Sarah Gadon). Which would be fine if those scenes had any life to them, but they’re as empty as the rest.