An Interesting Film That Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda Been A Lot Better.

Rating: 5/10 (1 August 2019)

This is an Academy Award nominated film with a great cast, some good mood music, and a script with some clever lines. So, why did I only give it a 5 star review? Well, probably for some of the same reasons that it didn't actually win the Academy Award.
For starters, when writing an historical period drama, you need a culturally accurate script. Why spend a fortune on location shooting in castles if your just going to drop the ball with script details? In dialog-heavy scenes, this film starts to sound like an episode of 'Keeping Up With The Kardashians' (2007), using phrases like 'run amok' that wouldn't have been heard in England for 200 years. Most of the entertaining sexual banter would have been better suited to Kim and Courtney than to Queen Anne and her staff.
And, where is all of the steamy sex to match all of this innuendo and chatter? I will always downgrade a movie for having thematic sex and little or no nudity. I don't care what era the movie is filmed in, or what the cast may be comfortable with - if the movie requires sex, then it requires 'sexiness' and nudity. To direct this movie with no graphic sex or nudity is not clever or respectful or artistic - it's stupid and insulting to the viewer.
So, nice try. There is some good stuff here, but I probably won't ever watch this again.
RealReview Posting Scoring Criteria:
Acting - 1/1;
Casting - 1/1;
Directing - 1/1;
Story - 1/1;
Writing/Screenplay - 0.5/1;
Total Base Score = 4.5
Modifiers (+ or -):
Music Score/Soundtrack: 1 (There is some excellent mood music to set the tone, as well as some classical standards.);
Detrimentally Prudish Directing: -0.5 (All of that sex and innuendo, and so little nudity. Ah, the contradictory prudish art film.);
Total RealReview Rating: 5