The Lion In Winter review

Reviews

Aug 25th 2008 By Total Film

“I’ve snapped and plotted all my life. There’s no other way to be alive, king and 50, all at once.” James Goldman’s swift and witty scripting fits Peter O’Toole’s roaring charmer King Henry II (and Katharine Hepburn’s crafty she-wolf Queen Eleanor) like the medieval crown they’re dangling over the heads of their plotting princes, gathered for a family Christmas at Chinon Castle. It’s stagey and mannered, but it still feels sleek and modern – the Plantagenants put the diss in dysfunctional, taunting and scheming in an ever-changing whirl of pacts and plots. No extras.