Upon the whole, pretty bad

Rating: 3/10 (11 January 2019)

Solid acting by the three leads and sumptuous sets; these don't come cheap yet the screenplay was diabolical and, along with chaotic directing, mucked up what might have been a watchable film.
Period pieces have to convey the atmosphere of the times and in huge measure this hangs upon the use of language. Saying "OK" and "paranoid" doesn't exactly chime with a 17th century setting now does it? Only missing was "cool".
I don't believe the screenwriters were deliberately trying to be hip but they constantly lapsed into modern usages which blew the thing for me as I kept growling "They'd never have said that!" Then there was the constant use of crudities: "F" and "C" words - gratuitous use which perhaps was designed to bring relevance to a younger crowd, used to rap.
While some of the sound-track included decent 17th century music, there were episodes of monotonous repetition which really jarred the senses.
It was hard to follow the plot which was luckily pretty simple - and I hated the use of the fish-eye lens, especially in the corridor shots - what purpose did their distortion serve? I can take it straight, dude!
Despite the sound though uninspired acting none of the three characters was likable or, frankly, even interesting - it would indeed be hard to be interesting given such lines to say - or such direction.
And then there's the fact that this is stated to be a comedy - well, perhaps I have no sense of humour left but I saw almost none - very little wit even. Except one rejoinder which went something like"
"Will this be rape or seduction?"
"I'm proposing marriage .."
"Rape, then."
As I said, the sets were sumptuous - I'll give it three stars but hope not to see it again.