En kongelig affære (2012)'s activity

An enlightened foreign queen, a childish ineffectual king, attempts at moving a country forward from the Middle Ages stymied by religious hypocrites, and plenty of infidelity. Though it's never been acknowledged, I wouldn't be surprised if the events of A Royal Affair (if not this film's interpretation of them itself) were as much the basis of the Elle Fanning series The Great as the lives of Russia's Catherine, Peter, etc. The "kept queen" story recurs a lot in history, so similarities might just be a coincidence. This page from Danish history is played straight, of course, with tragedy in the offing on a personal and national scale. Alicia Vikander and Mads Mikkelsen are pretty pair, but I was more invested in the politics than the romance. King Christian VII is easy to manipulate and we see how two sides - our heroic reformers and the duplicitous status quo - run the country their way, no matter his wishes. Well made, well acted, but I'd probably be more invested if I were Danish.