The Last King - The Power and the Passion of Charles II (2004)

It's not always good to be king in this fascinating BBC/A&E historical drama, featuring a complex performance by Rufus Sewell as the exiled British monarch who returned to a volatile, post-Cromwell England in the 17th century. Pressed to forgive the enemies who killed his father, Charles II takes the throne and finds himself squeezed from all sides by vicious power brokers, his vengeful mother (Diana Rigg), a manipulative mistress (Helen McCrory), dubious advisers, a contrarian best friend (Rupert Graves), and his bewildered Portuguese wife (Shirley Henderson). Problems with the Plague and Charles's own, restless libido further complicate family and political dramas, but beneath the king's operatic tenure are visible strains of progressive government: Charles, after all, ushered in an early era of democracy in England. The Last King's sharp script never slows, but it's the cast's intense performances that bring royal intrigues to life. --Tom Keogh Amazon.com

Scenes from the life of a king

2 and a half stars. Ultimately, this film is unsatisfying because it is fails to provide context and continuity for the life of the influential and fascinating monarch it attempts to portray--it is more diorama than biography. Actors in the major roles are never portrayed as aging--if it weren't for other indications that he was nearing the end of his reign, Charles's death would be a total surprise. The only character development that rings true is the portrayal of the growth of Charles's respect and affection for his barren wife, Catherine of Braganza. (The epilog might have mentioned that after her eventual return to her Portugese homeland, the widowed Catherine ruled for years as her brother's regent, loved and respected in Portugal as she had come to be in England. She also plead with her brother-in-law King James for the life of the foolhardy Duke of Monmouth, her husband's illegitimate son.)

Too confusing for those who haven't an acquaintance with Restoration Britain, and too uninformative for those who have. The too numerous sex scenes preclude its use as an educational film. Too bad. November 17, 2008

Great Drama and History

The wife and I loved watching this drama closely tracing the history of this British monarch. October 4, 2008

Hmmmm... skip this one.

No, I didn't like it. First of all, Rufus Sewell is supremely miscast as King Charles II - he doesn't look anything like him. Charles II was a swarthy man, with very dark hair and thick lips. The producers seem to have thought that you can just put a wig on someone's head and that's it - but, in a biographical movie, the actor has to look at least a bit like the character he is supposed to be portraying (see, for example, Stephen Fry's Oscar Wilde, or Philip Seymour Hoffmann's Truman Capote - both of them superbly cast).

Then there were the stereotypes - all of them! The movie fell into every possible cliché, sometimes even straying from historical fact, in order to maintain the viewer's interest. There was sex galore, but also cheap thrills from the very beginning (of course the young Charles could never have witnessed his father's beheading from under the planks of the scaffold - nor would it have been necessary from the "emotion" viewpoint: in "Cromwell", Alec Guinness, as Charles I, bids farewell to his children in a scene that is as heartwrenching as it is historically accurate).

And, lastly, the actress portraying Queen Catherine of Braganza succeeded in a difficult task - that of making that pious, quietly dignified woman who had to endure marriage to a womanizer look at the same time insupportably shrill and hopelessly stupid.
July 7, 2008

A leadership portrait

This film which begins with the beheading of Charles I follows the life of Charles II from the time he is a 19 year old exile in Holland until the end of his reign in 1685.

The film gets an overall top rating for the superb acting, sharp dialogue, excellent art direction and photography, and masterful costume, hair and makeup. This last comment may seem odd until you see the hairstyles of Catherine Braganza as she arrives from Portugal or the make-up and styling of Barbara Villiers, Castlemaine, as she finally is forced out of the court of Charles II. The directors wisely showed almost all the primary male actors both wearing their overly abundant wigs that were popular at the time and then with shaved head when they were in bed or exercising.

The cast does an excellent job with Rufus Sewell portraying Charles II as a multidimensional and complex character. Charles II was continually put into difficult positions, such as returning to England to take the throne but under the condition that he forgives those who beheaded his father. His mother, Queen Henrietta Maria, played by Diana Rigg, is a cold and rigid woman who's advice doomed her husband Charles I and now she wishes to impose her outdated ideology onto her eldest son. Charles resists her fanatical assertions of absolute power as a divine right and carefully navigates a new world of shared powers. Charles II was served for many years by the wise Sir Edward Hyde, a pragmatic realist. Hyde is played well by the seasoned actor Ian MacDiarmid. Hyde advises against declaring war against Holland whereas brass self serving Duke of Buckingham supports it. When the war turns out a disaster, Sir Edward Hyde must pay the price, a gross injustice. Yet as Charles II says, someone has to pay for the mistake and it can't be the king. He warns Sir Hyde to leave the country immediately before he is arrested. The relationship between Charles II and his best friend, George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, is very complex for Buckingham has a highly manipulative personality style whereby he screams in the King's face in attempts to get his way while claiming that these emotional outbursts are proof of honesty and willingness to engage with the king as a human rather than as a power center. Rupert Graves plays the part of Buckingham well. But what do we make of a man who wishes to share women with the king to ensure an emotional bond? What do we make of a man whose advice to the King is always self-serving cloaked as 'honesty'? How does a man who manipulates behind the scenes and throws temper tantrums in public rise to such power with being born into privilege and capitalizing on the childhood friendship he has with Charles II. As sad and tragic as the exile of Sir Edward Hyde is the execution of innocent 70 year old Catholic, Sir Strafford, caught in an idiotic paranoid anti-Catholic political scheme and hoax. Charles II is forced to sign the execution papers for a loyal man that he knows to be innocent. The anti-Catholic paranoia ran deep in England through the reigns of Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, James I, Charles I, Charles II, culminating in open conflict when James II is removed from the throne in favor of his protestant son-in-law and daughter, William and Mary. Eddie Marsaw plays the paranoid Titus Oates, a conspiracy theorists who would be perfect on contemporary talk radio with his wild exaggerations and lack of credible evidence for his claims.

Charles' relationship to Barbara Villiers, Lady Castlemaine, is very complex and is a central structure to this story. Both were probably sex addicts and yet years of sexual intimacy gave both Charles and Barbara considerable insights into each other's character. Helen McCrory plays Castlemaine in one of the best performances in the entire film. She had many illegitimate children with Charles II and plotted to undermine James II by sexually seducing and then inflating the ego of young James, Duke of Monmouth, the eldest illegitimate son of Charles II. Handsome Charlie Creed-Miles plays this foolish young man that is so easily influenced and refuses to be guided by the wise counsel of his father. The ability of Charles II to continually forgive those around him, such as his foolish brother James, Duke of York, or his illegitimate son Monmouth, or his old friend Buckingham, or his mistress, Castlemaine, is a key feature of the personality of Charles II. Charles eventually seems to develop a sense of benign indifference to those he loves, keeping them at an emotional distance and refraining from falling into their strategic plots and manipulations.

The 25 year reign of Charles II saw much drama including a disastrous war with Holland, a terrible plague in 1665, the burning of London in the great fire, and continual friction between protestant and catholic forces in his country. Despite all this drama, Charles was able to balance the power of parliament and the power of Louis XIV, the strongest king in Europe. In this regard Charles was masterful since efforts by the parliament to control him resulted in his bonding with Louis and maintaining loans and stipends from the French King. However, when the Catholic French camp became too overbearing, Charles would side with the protestant parliament. The film does a fairly good job of portraying this balance that Charles maintained to retain and use power.

It is in the relationship with Katherine of Braganza, played by Shirley Henderson, where the depth of the personality of the king is also observed. Their relationship goes through many stages but Katherine's strength of character eventually wins over the king who grows fonder of her with each passing year. She remains supportive of him in times in which he must make painful decisions, never trying to manipulate the situation for her own gains.

Overall the film gets 5 stars as does the super acting job of Rufus Sewell in the lead role. The original mini-series had one additional hour of film which has been cut in the A&E product, but none the less, this version is excellent and thought provoking entertainment.
April 6, 2008

Almost Unknown TV Series

This DVD of an English TV series came up on an internet search for an actor. We had no idea that it existed. It is a great series on Charles II a perfect solution to the wasteland of current US televison, cable and movies. January 18, 2008

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