The English title "Queen of Hearts" seems a bad choice (the Danish title "Dronningen" means just "Queen"!), as if this concerns some Hallmark romance. It is in fact the total opposite: it pictures in a very harsh and cynical way how a self-assured and relentless middle-aged woman (the queen from the title) seduces her vulnerable and traumatized teenage stepson, who is recently brought under the care of her and his father. The consequences for the boy and ultimately for herself are devastating.
Director May el-Toukhy lets the story unfold like a Greek tragedy, in a slow but very intense way. She uses short scenes, sparse dialogue and many seemingly uneventful shots, like a glance of the garden or the surrounding fields and forests, or of the little twin daughters playing; the difference between these everyday scenes with those of the steaming illegal love-affair help in fact to create a sense of looming doom. There is some very graphic sex, I didn't think it was really necessary, but it's of course in line with the subject of the story, while the visible difference between the two bodies (one young and lean, one clearly middle-aged) emphasizes the incongruity of the relation.
Trine Dyrholm plays main character Anne to perfection: cold, aloof, self-absorbed, but also vulnerable about her aging body and afraid of loosing her happy family-life if the affair should come out in the open. Still her choice for total denial and renunciation of the boy really comes as a shock, and in the last half hour the movie speeds to a terrible but unavoidable climax. Gustav Lindh as the stepson does a great job too, he is totally convincing in his confusion and devastation.
A very intense and gripping movie.
Director May el-Toukhy lets the story unfold like a Greek tragedy, in a slow but very intense way. She uses short scenes, sparse dialogue and many seemingly uneventful shots, like a glance of the garden or the surrounding fields and forests, or of the little twin daughters playing; the difference between these everyday scenes with those of the steaming illegal love-affair help in fact to create a sense of looming doom. There is some very graphic sex, I didn't think it was really necessary, but it's of course in line with the subject of the story, while the visible difference between the two bodies (one young and lean, one clearly middle-aged) emphasizes the incongruity of the relation.
Trine Dyrholm plays main character Anne to perfection: cold, aloof, self-absorbed, but also vulnerable about her aging body and afraid of loosing her happy family-life if the affair should come out in the open. Still her choice for total denial and renunciation of the boy really comes as a shock, and in the last half hour the movie speeds to a terrible but unavoidable climax. Gustav Lindh as the stepson does a great job too, he is totally convincing in his confusion and devastation.
A very intense and gripping movie.