Gadon as the sheet-warming lady-in-waiting is given little to do but look naive and dumbstruck.

Malin Buska's pointedly manly performance as Kristina (a role that has been previously essayed by Greta Garbo and Liv Ullmann) -- all strides and swordplay -- is one of those heavily stylised turns that is either genius or folly.

It is thuddingly unsubtle.

It's hard not to wish that a better film could have come of The Girl King, but thanks to Buska there's a specialness to it that wouldn't have been brought to the project without her.