Not what I was expecting...

Rating: 2/10 (20 January 2019)

...and not in a good way. When a film scores as highly as this does, you might be fooled into thinking it must be an exceptional piece of work. However, right from the beginning this was clearly not going to achieve anywhere near that lofty a status.
Putting the historical inaccuracies aside, if you treat this as a piece of entertainment this film comes up way short. Not a great deal happens apart from the ongoing efforts of one woman trying to gain power and the other trying to exert it. In order to do so, there is a great deal of debauchery, violent episodes and gratuitous unnecessary female vulgarity. I'm not offended easily, but there are a number of very strong sexual references which don't add much to the scene - once or twice is fine but this is over the top.
The three main actors here give great performances and are the best compliments I can provide about the film. It would seem that this is a real film of extremes - ie you love it or hate it, and from the reviews here there appears to be no middle ground. Overall, it is too long, too violent in places and frankly an uncomfortable watch. Not a 'favourite' of mine.