Review of Atlantic Crossing

WARNING - MAJOR SPOILERS ----The story is great, and there is certainly a lot of tension - the Norwegian royal family escapes the Nazis, Martha and the kids bum rush Swedish border control to get out of Norway, the King of Sweden (her uncle) has to disinvite her to protect his country from the Nazis, meanwhile King Haakon and Olav make it to London while Martha and the kids manage to get on a US transport ship to America where they live under the protection of FDR for the duration of the war. There are 2 foiled kidnapping attempts. Martha comes into her own, learning diplomacy and how to lobby on behalf of her country, developing a presence and public speaking skills with the help of Eleanor Roosevelt, taking Norwegian veterans into her own home, rebuffing the advances of FDR, and all while raising 3 children and trying to maintain their family's culture and traditions in a far away land without the support of her husband who she repeatedly begs to join them. It was riveting. But what do the filmmakers give her for all of this? A petty, self centered Olav who is jealous and suspicious of her relationship with FDR (at one point punishing her for breaking off contact when he specifically asked her to do so), allows himself to take the credit for her work in bringing about the Lend Lease Act, and ultimately threatens to take the children away from her. Tobias Santelmann does a fantastic job, I wanted to slap him in the face myself, which thank goodness Nikolai took care for me. I know some of this is done for dramatic effect, but it was unkind to Olav, and extraordinarily unkind to Martha. And after all that, the filmmakers couldn't even bother with an apology from Olav - just joining her early on the boat ride in, and creating an office for her in their home. It left me feeling flat, like the story wasn't entirely resolved. Yay, they're together again, but why should Martha trust Olav? If the filmmakers could put Martha and Olav through some invented marital strife, then surely they could invent the words to atone for the pain they went through.