![]() ![]() El-Toukhy, who co-wrote with Maren Louise Kaehne, devotes much of the tale’s first half to creating a tapestry of familial tranquility and well-being: The forty-something Anne (Trine Dyrholm of last year’s Nico, 1988) is a successful lawyer who adroitly manages balancing her career, raising two young daughters and being there for her doctor husband Peter (Magnus Krepper) at their lovely home in the woods. (At least, per IMDb keywords, it’s a prosthetic.) Such an unvarnished depiction, like the scenes themselves, does little to burrow past the sensationalism of their relationship.Deservedly or not, Scandinavians have long been known for their liberally enlightened view of sexual matters, but this film seems geared to assert that they’re second to none when it comes to hypocrisy. In their first encounter, el-Toukhy briefly shows the point of entry when Anne begins performing fellatio. When it comes to sex, the act is really just the act - particularly for Gustav, whose feelings scarcely receive airtime … and certainly not with much depth. The frankness of the presentation stands in contrast to the rest of Queen of Hearts, which illuminates the multiple layers of fraught, unspoken subtext in any given scene. The film’s only real weak link comes from how it portrays their intimacy. The slight softening of Gustav’s tough exterior gives Anne the gumption to initiate sexual contact with her stepson, a move that unleashes far more chaos into their family than perhaps even their direst imagined scenario. Yet el-Toukhy, by this point, has burrowed so deep into Anne’s subjective experience that his touch feels positively tantric. For the audience, it’s clear that the physical contact by the troubled teen represents nothing more than innocuous physical contact. Within this resigned state of mind, Anne perceives the innocuous graze of Gustav’s hand as something more intentional than it is. Anne so desperately craves sexual self-actualization but realizes that fears the only gaze for which she’s an object is her own. ![]() In the film’s most vulnerable moment, she stands naked in front of her bedroom mirror when her husband is away. Though she often places herself away from the action by choice, Anne does not wish to hide - she wants to be seen. Spanning frequently manages to catch her apart from large social gatherings of people, if not isolated from them entirely. The family takes her stable presence so for granted that Gustav feels completely comfortable having loud sex with a female peer within Anne’s earshot. In both the narrative and visual structure of her film, el-Toukhy conveys Anne’s feelings of invisibility and voicelessness. What she does achieve, however, is an explanation and elucidation of the forces that might drive a successful and (nominally) satisfied woman to act in such an impulsive manner. Co-writer and director May el-Toukhy does not attempt to excuse the actions of protagonist Anne (Trine Dyrholm), which begin with the seduction of her teenage stepson Gustav (Gustav Lindh). Queen of Hearts attempts to understand why women who serve important roles as mothers and co-breadwinners feel the temptation to transgress social boundaries to placate libidinous urges. Robinson from The Graduate presumes a desperation and jealousy in a sexually rapacious mother, robbing her of agency in her own desire. The enduring archetype best exemplified Mrs. Think of the images conjured by the colloquial term “cougar” - predation, animal instincts. ![]() It’s tough to say that older women can afford the same luxury, especially when she couples with a younger man. Even as unease mounts over a mating pattern-turned-cliché, people seem more comfortable when the power dynamic aligns with the gender dynamic. Society tends not to bat an eyelid at intergenerational relationships so long as the elder member of the pairing is a man. ![]()
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