Everyone knows Henry VIII had six wives — but as far as filmmakers are concerned, it’s wife No. 2, Anne Boleyn, who has always been the main attraction. Still, cinema and television’s obsession with the Tudors is so intense that wife No. 6 had to have her turn on screen eventually, and so she does in “Firebrand,” a slow-burning drama directed by Karim Ainouz starring Alicia Vikander as Catherine Parr, the woman who was stuck with Henry during his oldest, fattest, sickest and maddest final years.
Adapted from Elizabeth Fremantle’s novel, “Queen’s Gambit” (clearly, they had to change the title), “Firebrand” tries to present Catherine not as the pious nursemaid from primary school history lessons, but as a rebellious reformer who struggled to save England from tyranny.