Firebrand Stars Alicia Vikander and Jude Law and is Directed by Karim Aïnouz
Review: Karim Aïnouz directs Firebrand, and the modern day social politics seem to overwhelm the general approach. As if the revisionist aim came before the film itself, Firebrand is stuck between a rock and hard place by using frank historical context rebranded to fit populous consensus in 2024. As a result, Alicia Vikander and Jude Law are lost in a soulless riff on a historical piece.
Firebrand Review
Karim Aïnouz’s Firebrand opens with a string of text reminding the audience that history tells the stories of men and war, but leaves out the rest of humanity, leaving us to draw our own wild conclusions. A sign that his latest film, one that packs the occasional punch but otherwise sinks into period piece fluff, is not entirely true.
Katherine Parr, the sixth and final wife of King Henry VIII, is played with great ferocity and anger by Alicia Vikander, who offers enough to the role despite the cliché steps her character makes to find solace in the end. Katherine doesn’t pass the Bechdel test (to say the least) in Firebrand. She’s tethered consistently to King Henry (played by Jude Law in an effectively strong-man, weak-brains performance that rivals many of the year’s best aloof performances), often working as a cypher for the world more so than an individual with grit and might.
And yet, despite the lack of characterization and develop amongst a pot boiler with a plot thin enough to cut through with a butter knife, Vikander and Law manage to feel unearthed in a world tied so far down to the ground. The movie isn’t doing enough to surround its central performances with enough intrigue and ingenuity.
Period pieces aren’t necessarily my thing on face value – often hampered by window dressing that’s quite hollow if you spend the time to look through it – and Firebrand is about what you’d expect from a closed door talky, but without anything to make it stand out; shot plainly and executed with enough heft to barely push it past the finish line.
Karim Aïnouz directs Firebrand, and the modern day social politics seem to overwhelm the general approach. As if the revisionist aim came before the film itself, Firebrand is stuck between a rock and hard place by using frank historical context rebranded to fit populous consensus in 2024. There are some neat performances littered in here (Eddie Marsan is also a standout alongside Vikander and Law), but the final product plays like a semi-sincere, melodramatic recontextualization to fit modern times.
It’s noteworthy, but the final proclamation works so much better with fictional material like Game of Thrones or whatever Ridley Scott decides to do next. Karim Aïnouz is making the transition from foreign films to English language ones, and my instinct is to give him a pass because there’s enough pieces to suggest a filmmaker worthy of another shot, but I hope the next is more acidic and cynical if that’s the approach he’s going for.
Score: 4/10
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Firebrand Film Cast and Credits
Cast
Alicia Vikander as Katherine Parr
Jude Law as King Henry VIII
Eddie Marsan as Edward Seymour
Sam Riley as Thomas Seymour
Simon Russell Beale as Stephen Gardiner
Erin Doherty as Anne Askew
Credits
Director: Karim Aïnouz
Writers: Henrietta Ashworth, Jessica Ashworth
Cinematography: Hélène Louvart
Composer: Dickon Hinchliffe
