QUEEN OF HEARTS: The Abuser Behind The Mask

Denmark’s submission for Best International Feature at the upcoming Academy Awards, Queen of Hearts tells the story of a woman whose idealized existence is in jeopardy after she has an affair with her estranged step-son. Directed by May el-Toukhy and co-written by el-Toukhy and Maren Louise Käehne (who previously collaborated on the feature Long Story Short), Queen of Hearts is a story of self-preservation, examining the lengths one will go to save oneself from ruin.

Anchored by a phenomenal lead performance from Danish star Trine Dyrholm, it’s a film that shows how frighteningly blurry the line between protector and abuser can be.

Cracks in the Visage

Anne (Dyrholm) is a successful lawyer who specializes in representing troubled children and young adults. She lives in a beautiful home with her doctor husband, Peter (Magnus Krepper) and their twin daughters. On the surface, her life appears to be a perfect picture of personal and professional accomplishment. But it’s clear from the very beginning that Anne has issues that threaten to throw her beautiful, stable existence into utter turmoil.

Anne is incapable of following rules set by others, bringing clients home with her despite Peter asking her not to and speaking out of hand to a defendant accused of raping her client. When confronted about both of these things, Anne reacts in insulted disbelief — how could anyone possibly think she is the one in the wrong? In short, she’s a narcissist, convinced that the world revolves around her needs and desires.

Anne’s inability to control her impulses — or rather, her lack of desire to do so — comes to a head when Peter’s troubled teenage son from his first marriage, Gustav (Gustav Lindh), comes to live with them. Anne is of course experienced in dealing with rebellious and unhappy teenagers through her work and uses these same tactics to get Gustav to cooperate with the rest of the family. This leads to an odd but affectionate camaraderie between the two that eventually crosses a line when they become lovers.

Needless to say, Anne and Gustav’s entirely inappropriate intimacy is almost impossible to hide from everyone else currently living under their roof. Soon, what began as a liberating affair for Anne turns into a dangerous tightrope walk, one that only has enough room for one of them to survive. And despite having made a career out of protecting children from cruel and manipulative adults, Anne has no qualms about adopting the tactics of abusers she attacks in court when it comes to protecting herself.

Broken Hearts

That Anne essentially changes from a defender of the abused to an abuser herself with nary a blink of an eye is one of the most disturbing things about Queen of Hearts, and what makes the film’s depiction of human ego and error so painful. Employing denial to the point of gaslighting, every word that comes out of her mouth seems calculated according to what she knows from personal experience will pass muster in court. It’s clear that Anne will do anything to save herself and the wonderful world she has worked so hard to build; to watch her transform from ally to enemy of Gustav in order to do it is incredibly tough to watch.

It’s also worth noting that the film’s shocking explicit sex scenes between the two are almost guaranteed to make you uncomfortable, which is likely the point — it drives home the illicit nature of their affair and reminds you that unlike other films about older women rediscovering themselves sexually, Queen of Hearts is not meant to be empowering. Nor is it supposed to be a riff on a popular PornHub search. Rather, like all sexual assault, this is a story about power — what one will do to get it, and what one will do to keep it.

To embody such a complex and calculating character requires a totally fearless actor, and in Trine Dyrholm it’s clear el-Toukhy found the right one. I was unfamiliar with Dyrholm’s work until I saw her embody the chanteuse Nico in the final days of her life in Susanna Nicchiarelli’s Nico, 1988 at last year’s Tribeca Film Festival; her performance in that film impressed me with its incredibly raw portrayal of a woman jaded, faded, and addicted. After seeing her work in Queen of Hearts, it’s clear that Dyrholm is an actor who doesn’t just embrace complicated women characters, she thrives as them, boldly plunging into dark places from which others would shy away.

Over the course of Queen of Hearts, Anne evolves from admirable with a side of unpleasantness to positively amoral, at one point going so far to tell Gustav that he “takes up too much space” in their family. In another actor’s hands, this behavior could be unwatchable, but Dyrholm makes it impossible to tear your eyes away from the screen, even when you really, really want to escape from the pain she is causing herself and others. Lindh and Krepper are also excellent as they separately attempt to deal with the radioactive fallout of Anne’s decisions, but this film belongs to Dyrholm.

Queen of Hearts is evocatively photographed by cinematographer Jasper J. Spanning, who also shot Denmark’s last Academy Awards submission, claustrophobic thriller The Guilty, and whose use of light and shadow highlights the dual life that Anne starts leading once the affair begins. The original score by Jon Ekstrand also goes a long way towards creating the film’s anxiety-inducing atmosphere. Yet despite the all-around great filmmaking, it’s the characters and their actions, however unconscionable, that make Queen of Hearts so savagely compelling.

Queen of Hearts: Conclusion

An unvarnished character study of an unexpected abuser and the havoc her actions cause, Queen of Hearts is one of the most emotionally draining films I’ve seen this year. That isn’t to say that it isn’t worth watching; Dyrholm’s performance alone deserves to be seen by many.

What do you think of how Queen of Hearts portrays abuse and abusers? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Queen of Hearts opened in the UK on September 9, 2019 and in the U.S. on November 1, 2019. You can find more international release dates here.