Queen of Hearts – Dronningen (2019)

Directed by: May el-Toukhy | minutes | drama | Actors: Trine Dyrholm, Gustav Lindh, Magnus Krepper, Liv Esmår Dannemann, Silja Esmår Dannemann, Stine Gyldenkerne, Preben Kristensen, Frederikke Dahl Hansen, Ella Solgaard, Carla Philip Røder, Peter Khouri, Mads Knarreborg, Marie Dalsgaard, Elias Budde Christensen Bouhon Kiertzner, Mathias Rahbaek

She developed into one of her country’s most acclaimed actresses over the past three decades, but it was close to Trine Dyrholm’s fame for a completely different reason. When she was fourteen she took part in the Dansk Melodi Grand Prix 1987, the Danish qualifying round for the Eurovision Song Contest. Her song finished fourth and Trine decided acting was more her thing, and then enrolled in drama school. In her first year she was directly awarded a Bodil, the Danish equivalent of our Golden Calf, for her role in ‘Springflod’ (1990). Not a bad debut! She would also win the gem six more times (she received a total of eleven nominations), including for Susanne Bier’s ‘In a Better World’ (2010, Oscar for best foreign film) and ‘Kollektivet’ (2016) by Thomas. Vinterberg. She also received a Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival for the latter role.

Why Dyrholm is such a great actress, she proves again in ‘Queen of Hearts’ (original title: ‘Dronningen’) from 2019. In this psychological thriller from director May El-Touky, she plays a complex, sophisticated woman who turns out to be very different from what we think in advance. Seen from the outside world, this Anne has done well. She has a good job as a children’s lawyer, specializing in sex crimes. Together with her Swedish husband Peter (Magnus Krepper) and two daughters, the twins Fanny and Frida, she lives in a beautiful house in a particularly idyllic location, on the edge of the forest. That apparent peacefulness is shaken up when Gustav (Gustav Lindt), Peter’s sixteen-year-old son from a previous relationship, comes to live with them. His Swedish mother is tired of his unmanageability and also thinks that Peter has taken it easy all these years. Anne sees it as her job to take care of the boy, but does so in a different way than you would expect: she seduces him and the two start a secret love affair.

Telling more about the story would be a shame, because ‘Queen of Hearts’ develops in such a compelling way that you just have to surrender to it. Everything stands and falls with the character Anne, a woman you think you get to know in all her vulnerability during the film, but who has many more secrets than just the scandalous sexual relationship with her stepson, almost thirty-five years younger. Layer by layer it is revealed who she really is. Someone who likes to be the pivot around which everything revolves, plays the savior with conviction (which is why she includes it in her work for vulnerable children), but who is also hungry for a certain power and it is Gustav who fuels those feelings. It is clear that Anne has been through a lot, that she has scars that have left traces of her past, but what exactly happened, El-Toukhy and co-screenwriter Maren Louise Käehne wisely leave open.

Dyrholm was closely involved in the writing process, so that she not only plays the part but actually is. She knows how to fool us for a long time, to empathize with her. We have serious doubts about the choices she makes, but we cannot imagine what that will ultimately lead to. We just see a middle-aged woman who, in a sort of midlife crisis, is rediscovering her sexuality. Dyrholm exposes herself literally and figuratively explicitly, which is particularly brave because she makes herself so vulnerable in an uneasy way. Incidentally, this also applies to her opponent, Gustav Lindt (who was ‘already’ 23 years old at the time of shooting). At first he seems to be the dominant party, with his obstinate behavior and his inaccessible attitude. But Anne turns out to be more shrewd and has her ways of taking over completely.

The mutual interaction and the change of position of power provides a fascinating spectacle, all the more so because it is sometimes the (older) woman who pulls the strings. This is a film that leaves you in a haze of wonder, incomprehension, disapproval and yes, disgust. ‘Queen of Hearts’ is a powerful psychological character sketch about power, sin, (in)nocence and lust that skims past the limits of our morality, with a masterful Trine Dyrholm. Intense, intense and very rewarding!