In the primary couple of minutes of “The Good Traitor,” a girl slits her husband’s throat in a sanitarium, and in some way it’s not the film’s most dramatic occasion. The man is the Danish ambassador to the United States, Henrik Kauffmann, and Christina Rosendahl’s good-looking historic movie recounts his renegade marketing campaign to save lots of Denmark after the Nazi invasion in 1940. Based in Washington, D.C., Kauffmann (Ulrich Thomsen) wheels and offers with President Franklin D. Roosevelt (Henry Goodman) and others to safe the help of the U.S., in defiance of the surrendered authorities again in Copenhagen.
Kauffmann’s machinations — granting Roosevelt particular entry to Greenland, and customarily appearing like an unofficial chief in exile — have been an audacious gamble throughout wartime chaos. Rosendahl fleshes out a secret historical past of back-porch diplomacy: Roosevelt was a household pal of Kauffmann’s spouse, Charlotte (Denise Gough), permitting the couple to press their trigger throughout nattily costumed backyard visits.
While the affected person sit-downs of diplomacy don’t reliably translate to excessive drama, the considerably cold-fish ambassador retains busy on the house entrance by carrying on with Charlotte’s beloved sister, Zilla (Zoë Tapper). (Even F.D.R. notices — and commiserates.) The movie’s prime setting, the embassy grounds, is shot with a lush, charged atmosphere, typically eerily overlaid with audio dispatches concerning the battle.
Rosendahl’s framing complicates any “great man” narrative of the interval, and reveals how the energies of private and non-private worlds course backwards and forwards. And in case you’re questioning, the throat-slitting of the opening, which occurred years after World War II, was apparently labeled by the police as a “mercy killing.”
The Good Traitor
Not rated. In English and Danish, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 55 minutes. In theaters and obtainable to hire or purchase on Google Play, Vudu and different streaming platforms and pay TV operators. Please seek the advice of the guidelines outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention earlier than watching films inside theaters.
