IIt seems we can happily agree that it's hard to believe that Hilary Mantel's film adaptation of Wolf Hall hit our screens almost a decade ago. Whether we're reading her masterpiece or watching the result, carefully peeled and arranged for our tastes by screenwriter Peter Straughan and director Peter Kozminski, we and the Tudors The intervening years were nothing. There's no more time.
The 2015 series features the first two books in the trilogy, Wolf Hall and Bringing Up the Bodies, and tells the story of Thomas Cromwell, a Putney blacksmith boy and advisor to Henry VIII. tells the story of the king and Catherine of Aragon as they negotiate the end of their marriage. , the break with Rome, the coronation of Anne Boleyn, and finally, though you foolishly kept hoping otherwise, paving the way for Jane Seymour and increasing the chances of a male heir. Her execution was devised for. Wolf Hall: Mirror and Light is the final volume and covers the last four years of Cromwell's life. And it's just as beautiful, moving, and perfectly done as before. It's breathtaking.
Strawhan and Kozminski created the opening scene days after Anne's death, interweaving the King's (Damian Lewis) preparations for his new bride with Cromwell's memories of the late queen's final moments. In case you don't remember Claire Foy as the woman on death row who barely overcomes her fear on the execution stand, here are a few scenes that will bring that fear back in one fell swoop. Time collapses again – between us and 2015, between us and the Tudor court, and between Cromwell and this (especially) failed act he brought about.
Cromwell is, of course, once again played by Mark Rylance, and it remains an unparalleled performance. It suggests everything but answers nothing. Every time we see him, we learn more and more about the man who must change the course of events brought about by Henry's growing whims and anger. We also see less monolithic presence and more human presence than before. There is a special scene with the illegitimate son of the beloved Cardinal Wolsey that is heartbreaking and shocking. Together with him, you must collect both scattered pieces before proceeding.
In the first episode, Cromwell replaces Anne's father Thomas Boleyn as Lord Private, subjecting him to the corresponding wrath of old and new enemies. He seeks to shatter Henry's daughter Mary's loyalty to her mother and her mother's faith, and once her allegiance is barely pledged to Henry, restore her legitimacy and broker a marriage if possible. I am. The impact of every choice and potential decision must be weighed and left as vague as possible to avoid risk and prevent disaster. A political, religious, and psychological thriller told by candlelight. That was before the Paul family started doing stunts. This time, Harriet Walter will play Lady Margaret, replacing Janet Henfrey. Her seamless transition from the modern-day malevolent matriarch of Succession to her 16th-century equivalent is quietly frightening.
Jonathan Pryce returns as Wolsey, appearing to Cromwell as a welcome vision, his doubts, perhaps a manifestation of his conscience, sorting through the layers of deception and truth that make up his life, and figuring out which ones are most useful and when. It appears as a way to decide. . And of course the king.
This script is a miracle of compression and architecture, and withstands loads that should be impossible. The first did justice to Mantel's 1,200 pages of flawless prose in six-hour episodes. This distills the essence of the last 900 stories of her trilogy. But the story is less telling here, and every moment needs to be packed even more densely in order to guide the audience to the end. And we are completely oblivious, because the story never wanders, the plot never lets up, but somehow the information is always there, and our ignorance makes Cromwell's Dispelled just in time to understand the next development of an increasingly complex life. This is one of the most complex yet intimate productions I've ever seen, the result of the entire cast and crew working in perfect harmony and undoubtedly at the peak of their powers.
To misquote Arthur C. Clarke, any sufficiently advanced art is indistinguishable from magic. And it's here for all of us. 6 hours of magic.
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