The Lion in Winter

Film Review by Cara McGuigan | 17 Aug 2008
Film title: The Lion in Winter
Director: Anthony Harvey
Starring: Peter O'Toole, Katherine Hepburn, Anthony Hopkins, Christopher Dalton
Release date: 25 Aug
Certificate: 12

Vicious, vitriolic, scheming, manipulative: The Lion in Winter paints a portrait of an utterly venomous royal family. King Henry II (O’Toole) lets his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine (Hepburn) out of her castle prison twice a year at Easter and Christmas. However, the boys, Richard, John and Geoffrey, are getting older, and Yuletide 1183 is shaping up to be the ultimate Plantagenet power struggle. O’ Toole was hot stuff in the 60s, and he’s on top, roaring, wildman form. However Hepburn, 25 years his senior, simply blows him off the screen. With the wit and rage of a mediaeval Tallulah Bankhead, she is absolutely magnificent as the conniving Eleanor, clawing tooth and talon for her favourite son Richard (Hopkins) to inherit Henry’s kingdom. The lust, bitterness and passion of the collected cast is a sight to behold, and the three Oscars it garnered (including Hepburn’s fourth Best Actress award) were wholly deserved. [Cara McGuigan]