"A meaty piece of historical drama, ‘The King’ mixes power plays, canny twists and brutal, widescreen medieval battles with a refreshing lack of deference for the Shakespeare plays on which it’s loosely based. Sure, some of the historical detail is embellished and Shakespeare purists may scream heresy, but director David Michôd (‘Animal Kingdom’) has done something genuinely fresh and confident with this well-told piece of English folklore.
"Opening near the end of the bloody reign of Henry IV (Ben Mendelsohn), it finds Timothée Chalamet as the king’s dissolute but peace-loving son Prince Hal. He’s the heir to the throne but is much more interested in boozing and womanising with his old pal John Falstaff (Joel Edgerton) than fronting up to his hateful father. But when his younger brother is killed in battle, he has no choice but to dry out, get a haircut and assume his responsibilities.
"Hal’s conversion from libertine to leader is a little thinly sketched but Chalamet executes a smart gear-change, dropping the boyishness and cranking up the sense of a man troubled by his responsibilities. Also worrying him is the conflicting advice of his counsellors and the intentions of the warmongering French, embodied by a riotous Robert Pattinson as the preening, Engleesh-taunting Dauphin. The Battle of Agincourt, of course, awaits them all." - Time Out