Perhaps there's only so much to be done with a costume drama about illicit affairs and would-be coups.
– Michael Nordine,
L.A. Weekly,
2 Jan 2013
fresh:
Although the brazen lovers, bellicose ministers and backstabbing handmaidens are familiar elements, the film is so handsomely mounted that we happily endure the ride until the turning of the screws in the tragic last act.
– Joe Williams,
St. Louis Post-Dispatch,
17 Jan 2013
fresh:
The film ends not on a happy note, naturally, but on a moment of hope. Love may not conquer all, but it has a power all its own.
– Connie Ogle,
Miami Herald,
18 Jan 2013
rotten:
For all its incident, A Royal Affair is slow and picturesquely framed - more of a languorously animated coffee-table book than a gripping drama.