“Firebrand” is the first English-language film by Brazilian-Algerian director Karim Aïnouz, and he infuses this portrait of mid-1500s Tudor England figure Katherine Parr with an entrancing fluidity with which you cannot help but be impressed. In theaters this week, “Firebrand” also benefits from an understated performance by Alicia Vikander, as the English queen and regent and a bolder turn by Jude Law as her tyrannical husband, King Henry VIII. In all, though, this adaptation of Elizabeth Fremantle’s 2012 historical novel, “The Queen’s Gambit,” feels like at least a slight missed opportunity, a tale that instead of building momentum to its climax loses a bit of narrative momentum in its third act, even as the stakes for Katherine are of the life-or-death variety.
In his director’s statement, Aïnouz — whose credits include “Invisible Life,” “Mariner of the Mountains” and the documentary “Central Airport THF” — talks of “reimagining of a ‘period’ film, closer to a psychological horror film, or a political thriller,” which is how “Firebrand” plays. (Later in the film production notes, it is stated he is not a fan of the term “biopic,” and so what we get here is but a sketch of a brief time in its main subject’s life.) Parr was the sixth and final wife of Henry VIII — in recent years, she, Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves and Catherine Howard have been the heroines of the award-winning stage .