I found the scene depicting the reunion of Nicholas and Alexandra incredibly painful to watch since it illustrated those times when two people who love each other very much are overwhelmed by emotion, grief and, yes, the memories of previous disagreements, but are trying very hard to reconnect. I did not find it overdrawn; on the contrary, I thought it neatly encapsulated a number of points that the screenwriter wanted to illustrate:
1) Nicholas, in the tradition of men of that period, did his best to keep "a stiff upper lip," but once reunited with his wife--the woman who, though his lover, also could offer him a maternal love that his own mother did not--all defences crumbled;
2) The pressures of his reign, increased by the war and his abdication, had to have taken an enormous emotional and psychological toll on Nicholas. The screenwriter depicted this by showing him walking the gauntlet of hostile soldiers, then finally finding safe haven with his wife, who nonetheless had been the very person who challenged him to "be Peter the Great"--a challenge he could not fulfill. His sense of failure had to have been profound, and his constricted features and sobbing voice would be a part of that;
3) Although united, a certain gulf between Nicholas and Alexandra still existed. He would reconcile his abdication as God's will and attempt to be friendly with their captors; Alexandra, on the other hand, remained proud and distant to all but her closest circle.
4) The screenwriter had them drop to their knees because in moments of great helplessnes and shock this happens to many people (it has happened to me) but showed them facing each other, each attempting, despite tears and grief, to bridge that gulf and let the other one know that despite the abdication, the love between them was not extinguished.
And from Anna Alexandrovna Vyrubova's book, reproduced on this website:
CHAPTER XV
In anxiety almost unbearable we waited until the morning of March 9 (Russian) the arrival of the Emperor . . . For a time at least the happiness of reunion blotted out the suspense of the past and the gloomy uncertainty of the future. But afterwards, alone, behind their own closed doors, the emotion of the betrayed and deserted Emperor completely overcame his self-control and he sobbed like a child on the breast of his wife.
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Anyone who has tried to console a frightened child or a traumatised adult knows that Michael Jayston's performance in that scene was painfully spot-on. If you found the way Nicholas and Alexandra reacted to each other in that scene unbelievable, then odds are that you and your spouse/significant other haven't experienced excruciating loss and I congratulate you. If you found the scene comical or amusing, then perhaps you need to return to pulling wings off butterflies.
