Inês de Portugal

The story of Inês de Castro is the stuff of legends, similar to the great tragedies of ancient Greece, but this one really happened: D. Pedro of Portugal was the heir to his father's throne when he fell in love with D. Inês, a Galician noble. Their adulterous relation could have had little political consequence, had D. Pedro's legitimate wife not died in childbirth.

Meanwhile, Pedro had a couple of children with Inês. His father the king feared the influence of Inês's brothers with his son, the future king of Portugal. The life of his grandson Fernando, the legitimate heir of D. Pedro by the previous marriage, could also be at risk - the Castro family would surely welcome the rise of a son by Inês to heir of the prince Pedro, and this could happen if the child Fernando happened to die. To stem the menace, the king ordered the death of Inês.

Grief-struck, Pedro rebelled against his father. Two years later the old king died and Pedro rose to the throne. His first actions were of revenge against the three killers of Inês - he captured two, which he subjected to a grisly torture and death. Later, allegedly half-maddened by the death of his beloved, he exhumed and crowned the dead body of Inês as queen of Portugal.

The historical/legendary story has a lot of potential for a great movie. Unfortunately, this production fails to deliver. The acting is wooden and the script is slow and sometimes stale. It is still worth checking out if you are an history buff, but I don't know if the DVD comes with subtitles or a dubbing track in any other language - the original language is Portuguese.