Review of Henri 4 (2010) by Ola G — 17 Apr 2014

In 16th Century France, political power walks hand in hand with religion as the Royal Family are devout Catholics and Huguenots (early Protestants) are treated as second-class citizens. Henry (Julien Boisselier) is a Huguenot military leader who has become a hero in Navarre, a territory in Southwest France, and as Nostradamus (Fritz Marquardt) predicts a remarkable future for him, he is introduced to Catherine de' Medici (Hannelore Hoger), the Catholic queen of France. Catherine clearly holds power over feeble-minded King Charles IX (Ulrich Noethen), and she is keen on holding on to her position by seeing her sons go on to rule the nation. But as the Huguenots become restless and Henry looks to be the potential leader of a revolt, Catherine arranges a marriage between Henry and her daughter Margot (Armelle Deutsch), certain the alliance will stop the budding conflict. But the nuptials only leads to the infamous St. Bartholomew's Day massacre as Catholics attack Huguenots, leading to the death of thirty thousand people. Henry is captured by the Queen's army but escapes to lead the Huguenots in a war against the throne; while Henry is forced to resort to violent means, his goal is to end the fighting by establishing religious freedom and ending faith-based rule in France...

This french big budget costume drama was alluring at sight, but unfortunately it sinks under its own weight due to several reasons. The biggest problem being the fact that the film was shot with each actor saying his dialogue in his or her native tongue, which would then be dubbed over in the other language in post-production depending on the market, and this is painfully obvious with a constant involuntarily comic agenda as a result that never lose its grip of the movie. This has spread both to the acting, the direction (bombastic and over the top) and the general dramatisation of the story. It´s way too long as well and there´s not much you feel compelled to like as non of the characters are interesting nor intriguing. Well, I will say that Armelle Deutsch made an impression on me as Margot, but the rest is forgettable. Nah, this is not working in my book.