Despite the good actors, the film is unfortunately laughable.
I was expecting a historical drama, but the film is complete fiction, so historically inaccurate that it borders on parody.
First of all, Henry is described here as a papist, even "Catholic lords" are mentioned in the film. Laughable.
Henry severed ties with the Roman Catholic Church after the Pope refused to grant him a divorce from his first wife. After that, he persecuted the Catholics and took their property.
After all that is taken into account, of course the film is pure fantasy. Historical accuracy, even approximate, is something we rarely see in today's movies. These days, it's hard to make serious historical drama, because the directors and writers must insert things that do not belong in certain historical periods.
The costume design is good, the acting is very good, it's a shame that the script is hilarious.
The directing is mostly mediocre, but watchable. At least there is no annoying "shaky camera".
The very end of the film is a complete fabrication.
Bishop Stephen Gardiner, played by Simon Russell Beale, is a cartoon villain, devoid of any nuance. Hilarious.
And, let's not even mention some bizarre casting choices that only ruin the impression of the film even more.
Jude Law is a great actor, and if the script and director were better, this could have been a great movie.
Unfortunately, this is another pretentious historical fiction, which is also mostly boring, with no tension and comically bad dialogue. Yes, the film is even boring and monotonous at times, a complete disappointment.
I give it 2/10, just for the good acting and costuming, everything else is unfortunately bad.
It's a shame, with such good actors, the film could have been excellent. In the end, this is just another missed opportunity.
