queen of hearts movie review

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Queen of Hearts review – addictive study of infidelity in picture-perfect life

Trine Dyrholm is outstanding as a liberal-minded lawyer who has a predatory affair with her stepson in May el-Toukhy’s excellent Danish drama

T here’s a core of steel to this very enthralling and glossy movie from Danish-Egyptian director and co-writer May el-Toukhy. It’s exactly the kind of drama that might prove binge-worthily addictive if it was a three- or four-part series on a streaming platform. As a standalone feature film, it had me on the edge of my seat.

Trine Dyrholm gives a terrific performance in the sophisticated and sexually candid style that she does so well. (Watching a previous film of hers, The Commune , I found myself thinking of the steamy 70s TV show Bouquet of Barbed Wire; the same thought occurred to me now.) Dyrholm is Anne, an accomplished lawyer who is currently acting for the victim in a rape case; she is impeccably liberal and enlightened in the matter of sexual politics. Anne is married to a doctor, Peter (Magnus Krepper), and they have two charming twin girls, but their picture-perfect life has something emotionally stagnant in it.

The problem comes when Peter’s troubled teenage son from a previous marriage – the truculent, aggressive Gustav (Gustav Lindh) – comes to live with them. Anne catches Gustav in an act of stealing and uses this to pressure him into behaving better – and this hold she has over him ignites some complex feelings in her, especially when she is secretly excited to overhear Gustav having sex with a girl he brings back to the house. Soon they are having an affair, and this clandestine situation reveals something dishonest and predatory in Anne that she cannot recognise in herself.

Many films would be content to let the plot wind down in a predictably painful and sorrowing way with that dramatic event, but el-Toukhy and Dyrholm keep us off-balance with some very suspenseful touches and present something intriguingly and even pathologically cold in Anne. The film genuinely has something tragic in it, and Dyrholm is outstanding.

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Review: Danish drama ‘Queen of Hearts’ drives a complex woman toward tragedy

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More films from women, and starring women, means more stories about complicated women, and that’s what’s captivatingly on display in filmmaker May el-Toukhy’s domestic drama “Queen of Hearts,” Denmark’s submission for this year’s Oscar for best international feature film.

A peek inside the luxuriously modern country home of formidable lawyer Anne ( Trine Dyrholm ) and physician husband Peter ( Magnus Krepper ) would suggest this is a do-gooder pair’s serene refuge: for their cheery twin daughters, for the occasional party hosting their liberal-minded friends and, when necessary, for one of Anne’s clients — typically a young victim of domestic violence — who might need temporary shelter.

When the couple take in Peter’s estranged, surly teenage son Gustav (Gustav Lindh) from a prior relationship, there’s an adjustment period even for this capable couple. Gustav is good with the girls but he also stages a burglary to steal from the house, which Anne, deploying her mom-as-attorney abilities, discovers and uses as leverage to convince Gustav to step up as a family member. It’s a well-intended authority move but with unfortunate consequences when Anne becomes attracted to her stepson, then seduces him.

The tricky brilliance of “Queen of Hearts” is in how el-Toukhy uses a well-worn narrative — the unsuspecting, hidden passion with the appearance of erotic freedom — to unveil what in reality is a poisonous tale of abuse. If that element isn’t clear from the start because of the smiling postcoital faces on Anne and Gustav, it’s made perfectly obvious when exposure is threatened, and Anne turns into an unforgivably cruel protector of her comfortable life at the expense of an emotionally ill-equipped kid under her care.

El-Toukhy’s taut, Sirk-via-Lupino direction of her script is a confident mapping of this melodrama’s fault lines, marked by the formidable tension of her scenes and her framing of the characters against their environment. The key performances are powerful, and Lindh’s way with the insecurities bubbling inside a sour, vulnerable teen is a small marvel. But at the core of this elegantly queasy tale is Danish star Dyrholm’s commanding portrayal of Anne in all her righteous charm, certainty and triggered malevolence, which by the end can make the most charitably minded viewer toward a middle-aged woman’s desires feel like an enlightened dupe, slapped into awareness of how families are no different as power structures than any business shielding a crafty manipulator’s systemic abuse.

As “Queen of Hearts” moves toward its conclusion, though, Dyrholm is never anything but dimensional about her character’s choices, which keeps this material from being easy to swallow as a moral thriller, and instead edges it ever so persuasively into the realm of soul-crushing tragedy.

'Queen of Hearts'

In Danish and Swedish with English subtitles Not rated Running times: 2 hours, 7 minutes Playing: Starts Nov. 1, Laemmle Glendale

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Film Review: ‘Queen of Hearts’

Trine Dyrholm is tremendous as an unlikely sexual predator in May el-Toukhy's chilly, question mark-laden provocation.

By Guy Lodge

Film Critic

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“Sometimes what happens and what must never happen are the same thing,” says Anne, a successful lawyer given to flouting expected codes of conduct, midway through “ Queen of Hearts .” As excuses for an offense go, it’s on the slender side — a slightly more formal version of “the heart wants what it wants” — but Danish director May el-Toukhy ‘s sleek, engrossing melodrama isn’t liable to interrogate its characters. “What must never happen” makes for a better story, after all, and her film leads its characters into that territory with a detachment as cool as its polished Scandi interiors. The heat comes from viewers’ own emotional response to its doozy of a central transgression, as middle-aged, comfortably married Anne (Trine Dyrholm) initiates a reckless sexual affair with her troubled teenage stepson Gustav (Gustav Lindh): The premise’s “what?!” factor is so luridly high that the “why?!” one gets pushed to the background.

That this approach holds water for as long as it does comes largely down to the sharp, subtle gifts of Dyrholm, one of those actors who truly has to strain for a false note. Her finely shifting body language and simultaneously knowing, querying gaze go a long way toward making in-the-moment sense of an intelligent character’s most brazenly stupid decisions, even as we begin to suspect that the script, by el-Toukhy and Maren Louise Käehn, may be as bemused by her as we are.

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In a conversation piece pitched halfway between the delicate Sirkian tragedy and Adrian Lyne at his most sensational, it’s the overridingly controlled nature of proceedings — from performance to production design — that keeps “Queen of Hearts” from sliding into the hysterical silliness that its provocations invite. You can’t quite turn away from it even as you don’t quite believe it: That will carry el-Toukhy’s sophomore feature (formally, a sizable step up from her 2015 romantic comedy “Long Story Short,” also featuring Dyrholm) far on the international arthouse circuit, and ought to net the interest of international producers in the director’s next move. (Meanwhile, you can practically envisage a Robin Wright-starring U.S. remake of “Queen of Hearts” while watching it.)

At a leisurely 127 minutes, the film takes time to build its crisis, while dropping hints from the off that something is rotten in, if not the state of Denmark, at least the state-of-the-art Danish home that Anne shares with her Swedish husband Peter (Magnus Krepper), an equally high-flying doctor, and their adorable twin girls. Though they’re an ostensibly enviable family, Peter confesses to wishing Anne were a little more submissive, while both partners are wedded to their jobs first and foremost. Their overall happiness seems brittle, cushioned by privilege but vulnerable to the slightest tremor: They get more than that when Gustav, Peter’s estranged son from his first marriage, moves in, having been expelled from both his school and his mother’s home in Sweden.

With father-son relations all but frozen over, Anne at first quietly inserts herself into the void as Gustav’s ally, covering for his misdeeds and buying him a high-end laptop; as a lawyer who specializes in representing young victims of abuse, her overtures of generosity to the sullen, withdrawn boy at first seem an extension of her job. Yet that particular character detail only confuses the picture once her kindness crosses the line into intimacy, first via conversation, then a kiss, then a full-blown sex scene shot with a very Scandinavian fusion of explicit candor and white-linen restraint. As one who deals compassionately with trauma-afflicted children on a daily basis, does she not view herself as a perpetrator of sexual assault? Has she legally talked herself into a trickier view of the situation? Or is she not thinking at all — a woman of the law finally giving in to unfiltered urge?

All these possibilities are kept afloat by Dyrholm’s fierce, fascinating performance — with an equally prickly, nuanced assist from Lindh, who can vulnerably switch gear in a single scene from precocious flirt to stunted brat. But if “Queen of Hearts” earns credit for casting no judgment on either character, its refusal to let us into anyone’s head begins to feel less like philosophical distance than a bit of a psychological dodge, particularly as the situation collapses into calamity, and Anne’s actions progress from heedlessly self-serving to clinically so. In one exchange between the lovers, el-Toukhy and Käehn tease the possibility that Anne may have a history of victimhood herself, before retreating into pointed ellipsis.

There’s a lot to unpack there, but doing so might muddy up the film’s gorgeous, compelling ice- noir surface — so pristinely maintained by Jasper J. Spanning’s fluid, limpid camerawork and the tight string motifs of Jon Ekstrand’s anxious score. An uglier, more abrasive film could be made from this unpleasant story, though in the #MeToo era, the more elegant, aloofly accomplished one el-Toukhy has made should still prompt a flurry of debate over its portrait of a female predator. “You don’t understand how people work,” says one exasperated character to another late in proceedings; if “Queen of Hearts” has a driving thesis beneath its glassy, alluring intrigue, it’s that no one really does.

Reviewed online, London, Jan. 25, 2019. (In Sundance Film Festival — World Cinema Dramatic Competition; Rotterdam Film Festival — competing.) Running time: 127 MIN.

• Production: (Denmark-Sweden) A Nordisk Film Production presentation. (International sales: Trust Nordisk, Copenhagen.) Producers: Caroline Blanco. Rene Ezra.
• Crew: Director: May el-Toukhy. Screenplay: El-Toukhy, Maren Louise Käehn. Camera (color, widescreen): Jasper J. Spanning. Editor: Rasmus Stensgaard Madsen. Music: Jon Ekstrand.
• With: Trine Dyrholm, Gustav Lindh, Magnus Krepper , Silja Esmår Dannemann, Liv Esmår Dannemann, Stine Gyldenkerne.

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‘Queen of Hearts’ Review: A Gut-Wrenching Family Drama

The film includes go-for-broke performances and an explicit sex scene.

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By Glenn Kenny

The director May el-Toukhy opens “Queen of Hearts” with a neat structural trick that the viewer will only apprehend later in the film, a scene depicting its central couple calmly preparing to address a crisis. After a title card shot, the movie gets down to depicting Anne (Trine Dyrholm), Peter (Magnus Krepper) and their young daughters Frida and Fanny as a model upper-middle-class Danish family. Peter is a physician, Anne a lawyer who advocates for young victims of abuse. They live in a spacious modernist house in the sun-drenched middle of some beautiful woods.

And they’ve got a new family member to take in: Gustav (Gustav Lindh), Peter’s teenage son from a prior relationship. While putting their best feet forward, Anne and Peter acknowledge the challenge ahead of them: Gustav’s just been booted from a boarding school, not the first time he’s had disciplinary troubles.

Anne begins acting out on feelings of alienation, expressing her dissatisfaction by spacing out to Soft Cell while Peter entertains dinner guests. Her attempts to communicate with Gustav culminate with her seduction of the child.

This is a frequently gut-wrenching family drama that el-Toukhy directs with a sure hand, except when she doesn’t. The first sex scene between Anne and Gustav pushes boundaries of explicitness, but the physical action is so transparently contrived that it’s very nearly ridiculous rather than shocking.

Which is a shame, because when the movie isn’t straining, the go-for-broke performances of Dyrholm and Lindh give it a specific, unusual tension — like the feeling you get when you’ve over-tightened a corkscrew and know the matter around it is about to crumble.

Queen of Hearts

Not rated. In Danish and Swedish, with subtitles. Running time: 2 hours 7 minutes.

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‘queen of hearts’: film review | sundance 2019.

'Queen of Hearts' peels back the facade of an ultra-civilized Scandinavian lifestyle to take a look at some dark behavior.

By Todd McCarthy

Todd McCarthy

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The wages of familial sin and deceit are on full display in Queen of Hearts, a potent Danish drama that peels back the veneer of an ultra-civilized Scandinavian lifestyle to take a dark look at some very out-of-bounds behavior. In her second feature, after the 2015 ensemble relationship comedy Long Story Short, director May el-Toukhy maintains an impressive grip on the tone of an insidious tale that delineates the transformation of a successful professional woman’s personal conduct from supremely self-confident to malevolently manipulative and beyond.

Given that her eventual actions call to mind those of Glenn Close’s ’round-the-bend vengefulness in Fatal Attraction, this may not go down well in some “woke” quarters at the moment, but there’s no denying the filmmaker’s narrative command and the ever-accruing force of her story.

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Deservedly or not, Scandinavians have long been known for their liberally enlightened view of sexual matters, but this film seems geared to assert that they’re second to none when it comes to hypocrisy. El-Toukhy, who co-wrote with Maren Louise Kaehne, devotes much of the tale’s first half to creating a tapestry of familial tranquility and well-being: The forty-something Anne (Trine Dyrholm of last year’s Nico, 1988 ) is a successful lawyer who adroitly manages balancing her career, raising two young daughters and being there for her doctor husband Peter (Magnus Krepper) at their lovely home in the woods. Although it appears things have cooled off for them between the sheets, the couple looks to have worked out a reasonable m.o. with a lifestyle most of the world would envy.

True, there is something about Anne that goes beyond self-assurance to seem a bit high-handed, a sense that she feels so evolved as to believe she’s always right about everything. But she’s practical and reasonable enough to be indulgent of others’ weaknesses; as she regards her naked self in the mirror, you get the feeling that she’s cognizant of her aging and flaws but also proud of what she’s still got to offer.

Enter Gustav (Gustav Lindh), Peter’s teenage son by a previous relationship. The kid’s had a troubled upbringing, tends toward sullenness and has never been part of a proper family. He’s also quite good-looking, mature for his years and very sexually inclined. The bad boy ignites the bad girl in this woman about three times his age; after a frolic in the lake, Anne lets the kid adorn her with a tattoo. Leaving her husband and guests at home, they proceed to a bar, where she peppers him with very personal questions before kissing him full on the lips.

At this point, you really have to wonder: Does she actually want this to happen? Has she sufficiently let go of her senses to sleep with her husband’s son? The answer comes in a startling hardcore interlude (one that seems as unnecessary as it is explicit) that, after the fact, leaves you wondering if the deed was worth the risk.

All the same, the relationship blossoms into a full-fledged affair as active as it is ill-advised. What becomes most interesting, as well as aggravating, about Anne is her capacity for carrying on this massively inappropriate relationship while at the same time being so judgmental about other people’s behavior in far less consequential matters; she unquestionably views herself as morally and ethically superior to others, including members of her own family, and yet is the most hypocritical person imaginable, hatefully so before too long.

In the end, it’s an appalling tale of someone who feels so superior and ethically evolved that she’s entitled to do anything if she can get away with it. The film maintains its edge because el-Toukhy serves up this unsavory dish cold, without any mollifying humanistic judgments or reassurances that people are actually better than this. The central character is as heartless as any treacherous double-crosser in a film noir, but without the constant stylistic reminder that we live in a nasty, dark, dog-eat-dog world.

Quite the opposite, in fact, as el-Toukhy has made a point of delivering her autopsy on the human condition in a notably decorous and inviting environment, filled with walks in the woods, splashes in the lake, civilized drinks before dinner and relaxed downtime with friends and family. That such behavior could be going on between a teenage boy and his stepmother in this soothing and utterly civilized corner of the world, and all right in front of the kid’s father, makes Anne’s behavior feel even more insidious.

This is Dyrholm’s show and she gives it her all, emotionally and physically, delivering a full account of a woman who does whatever she wants because she believes she can get away with it. Krepper is entirely credible as a kid arrogant enough to think he can swim in the deep end.

This elegantly made film gets a strong assist from Jon Ekstrand’s sophisticated and unusual score.

Production company: Nordisk Film Production Cast: Trine Dyrholm, Gustav Lindh, Magnus Krepper Director: May el-Toukhy Screenwriters: Maren Louise Kaehne, May el-Toukhy Producers: Caroline Blanco, Renee Ezra Executive producer: Henrik Zein Director of photography: Jasper J. Spanning Production designer: Mia Stensgaard Costume designer: Rebecca Richmond Editor: Rasmus Stensgaard Madsen Music: Jon Ekstrand Venue: Sundance Film Festival (World Dramatic Competition)

127 minutes

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Queen of Hearts (2019) Movie Review: Trine Dyrholm Guides This Effective Melodrama

Queen of Hearts , Denmark’s Oscar submission for Best International Feature Film, is indeed a slight parable to  Alice in Wonderland . However, Anne (Trine Dyrholm) initially acts as the “Alice” of the storyline, falling down a rabbit hole of conflicting desire before slowly becoming the titular Queen and acting as her own worst enemy. While her incestuous affair with her teenage stepson Gustav (Gustav Lindh) gives her bliss, their forbidden love leads to a web of lies and betrayal.

Before both Anne and Gustav consummate their feelings, the film presents Anne’s sedate daily routine as a way of indicating her motivations for engaging in her affair. She may have a loving husband and a decent career as a lawyer. Yet, her husband feels absent even when he’s there and her career involving helping children in need appears to be less fulfilling. Anne’s solitude is also demonstrated through a key sequence involving her dancing to the song “Tainted Love.” The lyrics perfectly summarize her need for affection and to escape the constrictions she feels are put upon her.

Through the use of physical movements and her expressive face, Trine Dyrholm perfectly captures Anne’s feelings of isolation. Dyrholm previously gave a performance full of fire and brimstone in  Nico, 1988  as the famed rock singer Nico. In  Queen of Hearts , she shows a more icy disposition, giving Anne a bit of mystery in the process. Anne’s continuous silence makes the viewer what her thought process is even if it’s clear what her intentions with her stepson may be.

Although Dyrholm carries this film well, proper credit should go to Gustav Lindh’s performance as Gustav. Lindh wonderfully captures both his persistence and confused naivete and serves as a perfect foil for his female co-star. While Dyrholm maintains Anne’s restraint, Lindh plays Gustav as more of an open book that tries to get through the brick wall that Anne builds between herself and those around her.

Going back to the story’s  Alice in Wonderland  connection, the screenplay by writer/director May el-Toukhy and Maren Louise Kaehne makes the similarities apparent but not to the point where it comes overbearing. There may be scenes of Anne reading  Alice in Wonderland  to her children, yet it’s clear to the viewers that Anne has been led down her own aforementioned rabbit hole. Additionally, due to the grainy cinematography by Jasper Spanning, it feels like Anne’s journey takes place in a nearly bleak Wonderland.

With its desolate glance at the life of a woman creating slight chaos as she seeks fulfillment in her mundane life,  Queen of Hearts  might test the patience of some viewers. However, Trine Dyrholm’s dynamic performance is what makes the picture come together. It’s a portrayal that’s further proof of Dyrholm quietly becoming one of our best international performers

Matthew St.Clair

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‘Queen of Hearts’ Review: Lust and Poor Choices Make Tragic Bedfellows [Sundance]

Love is complicated. Changing personalities, time itself, and a little thing called lust can sometimes affect and infect even the strongest relationship. Choices made matter, but the decisions a person makes next can matter even more. Director/co-writer May el-Toukhy ‘s  Queen of Hearts is a tragedy about those choices made and a reminder that even the best-intentioned among us can royally fuck things up if we’re not careful.

Anne ( Trine Dyrholm ) and Peter ( Magnus Krepper ) are married, tenuously happily, and raising their young twin daughters in a beautiful home. Both have successful careers — she’s a lawyer for youth in distress, and he’s a doctor — that are their main priority after the kids. The balance works, but it’s shifted irrevocably when Peter’s teenage son from a previous marriage comes to stay with them. Peter’s had little to do with Gustav’s ( Gustav Lindh ) life before now and is hoping to make the best of it, but the teen isn’t thrilled at his new predicament. Anne knows he blames her for his parent’s split, and when she discovers his involvement in a break-in she cuts him a deal. She won’t turn him in if he starts acting like a part of the family. He agrees, and they live happily ever after.

Or at least they might have if Anne didn’t seduce Gustav and begin a torrid affair with the teenager.

Two things are at the heart of the film — the perceptions we form of people, and the choices we make. Anne’s job sees her fighting for those who’ve been preyed upon, and it’s a career she’s both passionate about and very good at. That doesn’t stop her from acting out on her loneliness, though, and taking a teenager down with her. Peter’s affections aren’t always available, and seeing Gustav with an age-appropriate love leads Anne to question her own worth. She wants to be desired, and as she poses naked before the mirror taking in her body and wondering if she’s still sexy the wheels begin to turn. She has everything in the practical sense, but she wants this thing, this carnal satisfaction of the forbidden, and she takes it.

Dyrholm’s performance is one built on sadness and desire, and she pulls you inch by inch into her situation before crossing a line with the audience in tow. Yes it’s wrong, but the shift in Anne’s demeanor is tangible, and young Gustav is clearly and happily along for the ride. Both actors reveal themselves physically, emotionally, and intimately, but it’s a dream from which they’re both forced to wake up.

The film could easily wrap up with the revelation and disillusionment of Anne and Peter’s happy family unit, but el-Toukhy has more devastating choices in store for her characters. Poor decisions have tragic consequences, and as the world crumbles around them desperation takes control. Powerful acting throughout carries viewers to a tipping point where dramatic loyalties end and vicious realities begin. No one escapes unscathed.

Carnality fills the screen with graphic couplings between Anne and Gustav, but an animalistic desire for survival remains even after the sex stops. What would you say to hide your sins? How far would you go to protect your family from the truth? There’s no real sensuality to the film’s sex scenes as they’re either between a disconnected husband and wife or a woman and her underage lover — his age isn’t mentioned, but while he’s old enough to legally drink (16 in Denmark) he’s still referred to as a minor. The characters exhibit real freedom in these scenes as they lose themselves in the naked moments, but that carefree affection disappears just as quickly.

Queen of Hearts is a tragedy about poor choices and the reality that we can never truly know the people close to us. We think we do, and we so desperately want to believe it to be the case, but their truths ultimately belong to them alone.

Related Topics: Denmark , Film Festivals , Queen of Hearts , Sundance

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Queen of Hearts (2019)

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Bilal Zouheir

What it's about.

This Danish film which was the country's submission to the Oscars is about a delicate subject. A lawyer who specializes in defending children, and who is used to developing closeness with her clients including meeting with them in her home, starts having an affair with her teenage step-son.

There is inherent tension to this obviously very explicit plotline: how would a serious, non-erotic (or not-only-erotic) movie like this one portray such attraction. And of course, afterwards, what are the implications?

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‘Queen of Hearts’ Film Review: Denmark’s Oscar Entry Explores Incest in Shallow Way

The Danish psychological thriller “Queen of Hearts” — a Sundance award-winner, and Denmark’s Oscar submission — is an unpleasant, empty-headed morality play centered on incest, sexual trauma, and ethical double standards.

Director May el-Toukhy and her co-writer Maren Louise Kaehne try to bait viewers with a plot that initially feels like an artier Skinemax erotic thriller — tough-but-fair defense attorney Anne (Trine Dyrholm) has an affair with her angsty teenage step-son Gustav (Gustav Lindh) — but the filmmakers rarely consider their subjects’ emotions or backgrounds beyond a very finite point.

The film’s toothless consideration of Anne’s personal crisis is illustrated by the scene where she acts out by drinking too many Aperol cocktails and interrupting an equally boring dinner party by queuing up and drunkenly dancing alone to “Tainted Love.” If this scene is supposed to be mordantly funny, it doesn’t really show.

Also Read: Death Penalty Drama 'Clemency' Wins Sundance Grand Jury Prize

“Queen of Hearts” is also the kind of movie that throws a number of pseudo-provocative and negligibly complicating plot details at viewers — including seconds-long shots of what appears to be 24-year-old Lindh’s erect penis and 47-year-old Dyrholm’s stiff nipples, as if to suggest that both of their characters’ desire each other (as Anne insists later on) — in an attempt to make viewers ask themselves how we judge Anne, and to what extent she’s responsible for what inevitably happens to her and Gustav. But el-Toukhy and Kaehne make it too easy to emotionally check out of their sometimes artful, but mostly banal potboiler. There’s nothing really complicated about “Queen of Hearts”; it just looks a little more classy and mature than most softcore porn.

To be fair, el-Toukhy and Kaehne’s consideration of Anne and Gustav’s affair is compelling during early scenes where she addresses young female victims of domestic and sexual abuse. In these scenes, Anne reveals some aspects of her personality and priorities: She knows that the deck is stacked against her clients and wants them to know that they will probably feel humiliated when they testify on their own behalves.

Anne also often tells others that they should or already do know what they’re getting into when they talk with her, since she’s unsparingly open about who she is and what she wants. She’s also not made of stone, as we see in a scene where she (mildly) confronts one of her client’s assailants in a parking garage.

Also Read: Academy Doesn't Shut Netflix Out in Latest Oscars Rules Update

Anne’s emotional equilibrium is destroyed by Gustav, the estranged son of her stereotypically distracted, sulky doctor husband Peter (Magnus Krepper). Anne knows that Gustav tends to lash out at Peter since Peter didn’t really raise Gustav, seemingly at the request of Rebecca, Gustav’s biological mom. Anne also knows that: Peter has chosen to bury himself in his work; she has normal sexual needs; and the best way to make Gustav feel at home with Peter and his family is by having Gustav spend more time with Peter, Anne, and their two young daughters, Frida and Fanny (Liv and Silja Esmar Dannemann).

Still, Anne and Gustav have a tryst, the fallout from which is mostly heavy-handed and emotionally stillborn, as in the scene where Anne gets over her symbolically heavy-handed dislike of swimming (thanks partly to Gustav, who splashes Anne with water in an earlier scene) and explores a secluded lake by herself.

Also Read: Oscars Academy Set to Surpass Gender and Diversity Membership Goals by Next Year

El-Toukhy and Kaehne make it too easy to look down on Anne’s actions because they not only seem disinterested in their supporting characters’ emotions but also don’t seem to care all that much about Anne’s feelings either. Knowing that she’s both kind and pragmatic enough to have a working moral compass is one thing, but seeing her wild out by listening to Soft Cell and doing the breast-stroke is only so satisfying. The writer and director also tend to let viewers off the hook whenever they introduce potentially complicating plot twists or character-enriching exposition; more often than not, they drop information in viewers’ laps, like the above-mentioned nudity, and then fail to follow up meaningfully on it.

Granted, there’s something to be said about how Gustav’s privilege as a straight, white young man potentially makes him less of a victim than Anne’s female clients. There’s also something fundamentally, and maybe universally, true about the way that Peter’s sexual disinterest and parental immaturity consistently drive Anne away from him and towards reckless behavior.

But there’s ultimately not much in “Queen of Hearts” to prompt a serious consideration of Anne’s actions. All three of the film’s principal cast members deliver strong performances, though neither Krepper’s nor Lindh’s role is as demanding as Dyrholm’s. And not even Dyrholm’s arresting, modestly scaled performance can carry a drama that’s so torn between shaming and sensationalizing its lead protagonist’s sexual frustration.

Gender inequality may be a potentially complicating factor when it comes to sexual trauma (i.e., men can also be abused by women), but that provocative conceit isn’t considered with much care or intelligence. Which is a shame, since “Queen of Hearts” shows great promise when Anne, talking about one of her clients, admits that “sometimes what happens and what must never happen are the same thing.” The rest of the movie is generally not as compelling.

Read original story ‘Queen of Hearts’ Film Review: Denmark’s Oscar Entry Explores Incest in Shallow Way At TheWrap

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Queen of Hearts Review

18 Mar 1992

112 minutes

Queen of Hearts

Queen of Hearts' is a big film on a little set. Complete with a passionately swirling undercurrent of vendetta, Italian immigrant family life is here oddly infused with English whimsy. From a Tuscan beginning, the action buries itself in post-war Rotherhithe's Italian Quarter: a story as old as that of those star-crossed lovers, it's a tale of a broken engagement, resented and avenged after 20 years.

Told as fantasy, it's seen through the eyes of ten-year-old Eddie, played with wide-eyed charm by Ian Hawkes. As you might expect being thinking British Cinema, its appearance is stagey and has the look of an Ealing backlot - only missing Gracie Fields swinging round a lamppost on song - but it requires more than a scattering of 50s cars and pork pie hats to achieve a timeless visual blend.

'Queen of Hearts' slowly and deliberately chronicles the demise of a Joe's cafe society as the gambling patriach Danilo (Joseph Long) struggles with a fiery beauty of a wife, crabby mother-in-law, the arrival of his ageing Lothario of a father and his scornful young buck eldest who gains employment with the jilted lover, black-browed Barbariccia. Our lad watches all this passion with well-observed detachment, but this is ultimately a mishmash of a film that doesn't quite know what it wants to be.

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"Queen of Hearts" has the same sort of magical romanticism as " Moonstruck ," but in a more gentle key. It's the story of a big, loving Italian family that moves from Italy to London, where papa wins enough at cards to open a little cafe. Eddie, the young son who is the hero of the story, grows up in the cafe and eventually figures out a way to save it when an old family enemy follows them from Italy and tries to drive them into bankruptcy.

The movie tells this story mostly through Eddie's eyes. He's a smart 11-year-old who doesn't miss much, although he believes all the family legends, even the one about how his parents fell in love and eloped. The movie opens with this legend as he imagines it: the mother engaged to be married to the horrible butcher, Barbariccia, the father spiriting her out of her parents' house, and the loving couple pursued to the top of the local church tower and then leaping to their death - their lives saved when they land in a passing hay wagon.

In London, Eddie's father gets a job as a waiter and then takes advice from a talking pig, bets on the right cards, and wins the money to open the cafe. And then, as Eddie arrives on the scene, the family history grows a little more realistic. The cafe becomes the center of family life, especially after two of his grandparents arrive from Italy: his mother's mother and his father's father. The old people hate each other, of course, but their hate is the sort that could almost be mistaken for affection.

Then disaster strikes, when the evil Barbariccia also arrives from Italy, sets up a gambling shop in the neighborhood, and even pays Eddie's older brother to go to work for him. Will the family lose the cafe? Will Barbariccia finally win his revenge? Will Eddie lose his best friend, Beetle, whose father runs the local bookie joint? All of these questions are settled with the most buoyant charm and good cheer in "Queen of Hearts," which is a truly happy movie and was directed by Jon Amiel , the British director of that brilliant but truly unhappy TV mini-series, " The Singing Detective ." All of the despair and bitterness seem to have drained out of Amiel during that project, leaving him nothing but sunshine and a touch of supernatural playfulness for "Queen of Hearts." The secret of the success of "Moonstruck," I've always thought, was that the movie had a level above the realistic - a level at which coincidences were permitted and people had grand, romantic revelations and dogs knew when to howl at the moon. "Queen of Hearts" has the same kind of freedom. Most of it is grounded in the real world, I suppose - but the real world as seen by a kid with a hyperactive imagination, who believes every one of his father's tall tales. Part of the fun of the movie comes because we know more than the kid. We know, for example, what bad trouble his family is in, and we know it's impossible that he could help them out. But he doesn't know that - and so he saves the day.

"Queen of Hearts" has no stars to help it at the box office, and may even lose some customers who think it's an Italian movie and don't like subtitles (it's in English). I hope it weathers those problems, though, and begins to develop an audience. It's the kind of movie that grows on you, letting you in on the family jokes and involving you in the family feuds. By the end, you feel good, in a goofy way, and when you think back over the movie you realize that under the fantasy and the humor there also was a fairly substantial story - a story about what it means to belong to a family.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Film credits.

Queen of Hearts (1989)

115 minutes

Ian Hawkes as Eddie

Vittorio Duse as Nonno

Joseph Long as Danilo

Anita Zagaria as Rosa

Eileen Way as Mama Sibilla

Vittorio Amandola as Barbariccia

Tat Whalley as Beetle

Directed by

Produced by, screenplay by.

• Tony Grisoni

Photographed by

• Mike Southton
• Peter Boyle
• Michael Convertino

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Queen of Hearts

An Italian couple defy both their families and marry for love. Four children later, they are running a diner in England. Humorous, dramatic, sad -- everything a movie should be. An Italian couple defy both their families and marry for love. Four children later, they are running a diner in England. Humorous, dramatic, sad -- everything a movie should be. An Italian couple defy both their families and marry for love. Four children later, they are running a diner in England. Humorous, dramatic, sad -- everything a movie should be.

• Tony Grisoni
• Vittorio Duse
• Joseph Long
• Anita Zagaria
• 9 User reviews
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• Trivia In one sequence, Mama Sibilla is watching television and commenting on the film "The Vikings". The actress who plays Mama Sibilla is Eileen Way, who played the witch Kitala in "The Vikings".
• Connections Featured in Siskel & Ebert: Johnny Handsome/War Party/Welcome Home/Queen of Hearts/Erik the Viking (1989)
• Soundtracks The Vikings (uncredited) from The Vikings (1958) Music by Mario Nascimbene

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• May 22, 2006
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• October 1989 (United States)
• United Kingdom
• United States
• Rotherhithe, London, England, UK
• Channel Four Films
• Enterprise Productions (II)
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• Runtime 1 hour 52 minutes
• Dolby Stereo

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‘Queen’ review: Kangana Ranaut is the ‘Queen’ of hearts

Movie review, queen: kangana ranaut revels in her solidly-written role, and delivers a first rate, heart-felt performance..

Movie Review: Queen

Star Cast: Kangana Ranaut, Rajkummar Rao; Lisa Haydon

Director: Vikas Bahl

Stop press: I have just seen an honest-to-goodness, full-fledged, full-bodied film. A FILM, hear me? Not an American sit com masquerading as one, or yet another meaningless 70s masala remake. ‘Queen’ is a significant Bollywood marker, a film that is intensely local and gloriously global, with a terrific lead performance by Kangana Ranaut, in a story that bubbles over with real feeling and meaning.

Rani (Kangana Ranaut) is dumped just a day before her wedding by her fiance Vijay (Rajkumar Rao). Devastated, she decides to flee, because staying home to lick her wounds is not an option. So, she finds herself in Paris, and the journey she embarks on makes ‘Queen’ the kind of coming- of-age, discovery-of-self tale that Bollywood usually doesn’t touch with a bargepole. Because women-centric films don’t do well, do they? This is where Phantom Productions, which has made this ( their first was ‘Lootera’), has stepped in. (See Pics: Kangana’s last minute promotions )

It starts with a loud Punjabi wedding, and you enter the film, mildly diverted by Rani’s loud Punjabi family, doing ‘giddha-shiddha’, ‘mehendi-shendi’, but not before you’ve had time to register that the Rajouri Garden ‘mithai’-shop-owning middle-class-ness of the Mehras is just right. And that Mummyji, Daddyji, the plump ‘chota bhai’, and Dadiji are all pitch perfect.

Big Punjabi weddings and Bollywood have had a long relationship, but where ‘ Queen ‘, both the girl and the film, start coming into their own, is when Rani is left to fend for herself, first in Paris, and then Amsterdam. A lone Indian girl, a ‘behenji’ with a ‘desi ghee tadka’, would usually fumble her way across crowded streets and annoyed pedestrians and find herself in a handsome stranger’s arms, sing a few songs, do a few ‘nakhras’ and gratefully accept ‘mandap’ and ‘mangalsutra’.

But not Rani aka Queen. She does make silly touristy mistakes, nearly gets mugged but doesn’t let it get to her, and discovers she has a spine after all. Lucking into a long-legged hotel maid Vijay Lakshmi (Lisa Haydon) is the first departure from standard Bollywood practice: this other Vijay takes Rani under her wing, drags her into a store with lovely Parisian clothes (these Paris maids are not just drop dead sexy, and enjoy their libido, they can afford all those designer threads?), and generally hand-holds Rani for an enjoyable spell.

Bahl’s second directorial venture is a delight: his first, ‘Chillar Party’, had some spark, but nothing prepared me for this. The story, which could easily have slipped into mush, stays free of drippy sentimentality, barring one or two raised-violin scenes. Rani is given interesting companions: in Amsterdam, she is handed a multi-cultural trio, a vertically challenged Japanese, a black Frenchman, and a good looking Spaniard, as well as a dishy Italian. Again, this could have turned into a clichéd international-accented soup, but despite a couple of exaggerated mis-steps, it stays grounded. And Rani is well on her way to learning the meaning of friendship and freedom in a land far away from home, where girls have to live with the word ‘allowed’ .

Kangana Ranaut revels in her solidly-written role, and delivers a first rate, heart-felt performance. There are only a couple of slips (in one, she pronounces the word ‘fiance’ perfectly, all rounded vowels: given her Rajouriness, this should have been a straight opening of mouth). I was also quite taken aback by the speed with which she junks her ‘chatak’ Lajpat Nagar ‘kurti’ look and adopts pastel, understated dresses. But no matter, I found myself watching Kangana Ranaut much more than her clothes. Her mobile face has sensibly been kept free from pancake, and more than anything else, Ranaut comes off believable: she does hurt like no other Bollywood heroine currently can.

Lisa Haydon nearly walks off with the film in her small role. She doesn’t place a single foot wrong as she strides long and smooth next to the diminutive Kangana. She left me asking for more. And the bunch of ‘foreigners’ that Rani raps with in Amsterdam are all well drawn, and what is even better, nicely rounded. The one part I didn’t feel as convinced about was Rao’s: he is made to whine and mumble altogether too much, as he makes his way through the film in uneasy fits and starts.

But that’s all right because this film isn’t about him. It’s about, hallelujah, her. It’s probably quite deliberate that Lisa Haydon’s name is also Vijay. And Ranaut is Rani, Queen of Hearts.

You go, girl.

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You can also send her your feedback to her at [email protected] )

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Series Review: K-drama 'Queen of Tears' shatters records and hearts

T he K-drama “Queen of Tears” has been grabbing headlines and breaking records for the past month. With the final episode airing on April 28th, it surpassed the previous record for the highest national viewership ever recorded by the network tvN, previously held by “Crash Landing on You.” Starring Kim Ji-won and Kim Soo-hyun, the series clinched the top spot with a nationwide viewership rating of 24.850 percent, making history. Additionally, it boasts global success, currently ranking third in the Top Ten TV Shows on Netflix. “Queen of Tears” was penned by Park Ji-un, who also wrote the previous record-holding series “Crash Landing on You.”

The Korean drama delves into the lives of third-generation chaebol Hong Hae-in and her lawyer husband, Baek Hyun-woo, trapped in a loveless marriage. The 16-episode series features an ensemble cast whose captivating performances do not disappoint.

Also Read: Shreya Ghoshal & Sunidhi Chauhan’s selfie sparks frenzy among fans

It begins by portraying the strained dynamics of the married couple, highlighting Hyun-woo’s decision to seek a divorce from his cold and intimidating wife. However, his plans change when he discovers that Hae-in has a severe brain tumor, bringing unexpected twists to their relationship.

The series’ first half captivates audiences with its compelling storyline, weaving themes of power, revenge, love, and emotions into eight power-packed episodes. From the introduction of Hae-in’s unrequited love interest, Yoon Eun-seong, to the death of the Hong family patriarch, Hong Man-dae, and the looming threat of the conglomerate’s downfall, the plot keeps viewers on the edge of their seats.

As the story progresses, the chaebol family seeks refuge in Hyun-woo’s hometown after losing everything. Despite facing adversity, the characters undergo personal growth, with the lead couple rekindling their relationship amidst challenges.

However, the final four episodes of the series become chaotic as it attempts to wrap up various character arcs and side plots. The resolution feels rushed and predictable, with sudden miraculous developments, such as Hae-in’s miraculous recovery and the sudden change of heart in the antagonists, lacking cohesion.

Ultimately, while the series delivers strong performances and an engaging first half, it falls short of maintaining its momentum towards the end.

The predictable and formulaic conclusion leaves viewers feeling underwhelmed, wishing for a more daring and unexpected ending akin to other unconventional K-dramas.

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Queen of Hearts Reviews

No All Critics reviews for Queen of Hearts.