There have been loads of movies about King Henry VIII and his wives, many of them which ended up on the business end of a guillotine. But there hasn’t been one that features the irresistible duo of Jude Law and Alicia Vikander. Fortunately for us, that changes with Firebrand, which centers on Henry’s sixth and final wife, Katherine Parr.
Directed by Brazilian filmmaker Karim Aïnouz, Firebrand centers on Parr, the final queen consort of the House of Tudor. A brilliant, educated woman, Parr’s reluctant marriage to Henry is a dangerous thing as she runs the risk of being the tyrant’s latest wife to be executed.
Also in the cast are Eddie Marsan, Ruby Bentall, Bryony Hannah, and Sam Riley.
Having debuted last year at Cannes, the reviews have been mixed. That said, the talent here is too much to ignore, and the Tudor story has continued to intrigue people for hundreds of years.
Here’s the synopsis: In blood-soaked Tudor England, twice married, accomplished, and educated Katherine Parr (Vikander), reluctantly agrees to become the sixth wife of the tyrannical King Henry VIII (Law). Her consent to marry him carries great personal risk, given that her predecessors are either vanquished, beheaded, or dead. When Henry appoints her as Regent, the nation’s ruler during his absence when he departs to fight overseas, he lays a dangerous path for her. Henry’s courtiers, suspecting she’s sympathetic to radical Protestant beliefs that have taken root in the kingdom and are a threat to their power, scheme against her and cast doubts upon her fidelity to the increasingly ailing and paranoid King. Once Henry returns to England, his courtiers convince him to turn his fury on the nation’s radicals, including Katherine’s childhood friend Anne Askew, who becomes one of the scores of people convicted of treason and burned at the stake. Horrified and privately grieving, Katherine finds herself under ever-increasing scrutiny and suspicion. Knowing that even a whisper of scandal might lead to her downfall, Katherine must unleash her own scheme to fight for survival.
Firebrand opens in theaters on June 14th.
