As Henry, Richard Burton is rather good; he delivers his lines with considerable sureness and style, and yet his performance is colorless, with more craftsmanship than vitality. It’s almost as if he remembered how to act but couldn’t work up much enthusiasm or involvement... Genevieve Bujold works at the role with all her will and intelligence. Her readings are superb — really quite phenomenal when one considers that English is not her native language (and has been only recently acquired). She’s a skillful actress, with remarkable technique, and she does wonders with the part, but she’s too tight, too self-contained...

Charles Jarrott, who directed, is inept at action and pageantry, and the picture is often static, but Jarrott is good with the actors and he keeps the issues and the dialogue intelligible.