A Royal Affair

A Royal Affair is set in the Danish kingdom of the late eighteenth century, where the young English-born queen Caroline Mathilde is trapped in a miserable marriage to King Christian VII, whose erratic behaviour and mental instability make him impossible to live with. Into the royal household arrives Johann Friedrich Struensee, a German physician with progressive Enlightenment ideas. He becomes the king's trusted confidant and the queen's lover, and as he gains influence over the throne he begins pushing through reforms that reshuffle Danish society. The affair between the queen and the doctor carries political weight, and the court figures who lose ground under the new order begin to work against them.

Nikolaj Arcel directed and co-wrote the film with Rasmus Heisterberg. It was Arcel's first feature as director, and he later made The Dark Tower and The Promised Land. Alicia Vikander plays Caroline Mathilde, Mads Mikkelsen plays Struensee, and Mikkel Boe Følsgaard plays Christian VII, with Trine Dyrholm, David Dencik and Thomas W. Gabrielsson in supporting roles. The production was a Danish, German, Czech and Swedish venture made for about eight million dollars, and it took roughly fifteen million dollars worldwide.

On IMDb the film holds a rating of 7.5 from around 54,000 votes, and on TMDB a rating of 7.3 from roughly 964 votes. A critics' rating of 7.3 from 111 reviews places it in line with those audience scores.