The Girl King

Greta Garbo and Liv Ullmann may both have played her on screen, but Sweden's 17th-century Queen Kristina still remains largely unknown outside Scandinavia. Both progressive and lesbian at a time when neither was acceptable, she fought what was ultimately a losing battle against both conservative Swedish prejudice and the pressure for her to marry and produce a male heir. Swedish actress Malin Buska plays Kristina in this handsomely mounted biopic. Canadian actress Sarah Gadon (A Royal Night Out) plays her lady-in-waiting and soulmate. And Scandi superstar Michael Nyqvist, from the Dragon Tattoo films, plays the chancellor who's caught between the rock of Swedish stolidity and the hard place of Kristina's feminism and sexuality. All are just right. If the film has a fault, it's that it maybe attempts to cover too much territory within its relatively modest running time. Otherwise, this is superior and hugely watchable costume drama.