But where have all the men gone?

Rating: 6/10 (17 April 2020)

The movie started with a lot of promise & for a while I felt like I could really sink my teeth into it. The concept of three strong actresses playing three strong characters was quite good and all the actresses played off each other quite well.
My problem was with the fact that Anne's husband, Prince George of Denmark, with whom she's said to have had a good relationship, doesn't figure in the film at all! There's taking creative license and then there's removing an important character altogether just to make it a novelty by having literally an all-female cast. Sarah's husband was shown for maybe 5 minutes in the movie but on account of his being at war, he could be easily dismissed as a minor character. Same for Abigail's husband, who also didn't merit too much screen time. But Anne's husband should have been retained and there's no excuse for that. In fact, his death & Anne's grief over it, is known to have soured the already strained relationship between her and Sarah. It's good to know that women are being given due recognition in movies but we need not remove men to do that!
I realize that this creative license taking isn't the first one and definitely wouldn't be the last. But, if you are taking so much liberty with history, why use the names of real people? I think that perhaps it's simply because they can't sue for defamation on account of being dead! If the creators had used fictitious characters, then the intimate relationships shown between the women would've been much easily accepted without raising concerns over their authenticity. The audience deserve much more honesty from their movie makers & other artists in general. The creators should have had more faith in their own creation instead of hijacking other people's story & manipulating it every which way. After all, it is a good story & might've worked better with fictitious characters. Unfortunately, now we'll never know!
My other problem was with the use of gratuitous profanity, for example, with the tomato throwing scene and also the scene where the recovering Sarah wakes up in the brothel. There are other examples too, but I think I've made my point.
I liked the last scene though. Abigail is seen catering to Anne's needs in a subservient & degrading manner. This brought to mind the scene where Sarah asks Abigail if she thinks she has won & she responds that she has. And in yet another scene, Abigail says that she's doing it all to avoid a degrading life. So, in that context, the last scene doesn't look like Abigail has won or that her life isn't degrading anymore, only she's taking it from the queen herself & not a nobody! The way I see it, it was Sarah who won because she wasn't subservient before & didn't have to be so later too. She led a much freer life!
Watch it if only for the amazing actresses!