Firebrand review — Alicia Vikander and Jude Law star in a fresh twist on Tudor history

Heavy is the head that wears the coif in Firebrand, which pits Alicia Vikander’s iconoclastic Catherine Parr at the centre of Tudor history even as Jude Law’s grotesque Henry VIII does his best to smother her. It’s a remarkable physical performance from Law, who spares us nothing, especially in grunting bedroom scenes in which Old Coppernose struggles noisily to get his gangrenous leg over. (Charles Laughton sloppily devouring a chicken in The Private Life of Henry VIII suddenly doesn’t seem so bad after all.)

Vikander’s Parr, by contrast, is all poise and grace, and does well to hide her disgust in a film of revolt and revulsion. Her association with the Protestant preacher and reformist Anne Askew (Erin Doherty) is what ignites Firebrand. Meanwhile, Henry’s obsession with fathering another male heir — or “a spare”, as he charmingly puts it — makes this at times resemble a Tudor twist on Succession with the mercurial king growling at his quivering underlings to eff off.

The royal couple are well served by supporting players, especially Simon Russell Beale, who is at his coolly conniving best as Catholic bishop Stephen Gardiner, oozing sadistic glee at the prospect of inflicting divine punishment on Parr and her ladies-in-waiting. Brazilian director Karim Aïnouz handles the material well, though some of the period details are less than convincing: the wispy red beard worn by Thomas Seymour (Sam Riley) is something out of a seaside joke shop while this Parr, with her golden tan, looks as if she’s just come back from two weeks in Rio.

We all know how the story plays out and yet writers Jessica and Henrietta Ashworth allow themselves enough liberties to tear up the school textbook and give the 1540s a feminist freshness. It’s certainly a significant improvement on Cannes opener Jeanne Du Barry, another period tale about a shrewd woman trying to stay on the right side of a monarch. Johnny Depp’s Louis XV turned out to be a pushover but you wouldn’t want to be on the wrong side of Law.

★★★★☆

Festival continues to May 27, festival-cannes.com