The Other Boleyn Girl

The Other Boleyn Girl (2008), Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson, Eric Bana.

I recently saw this movie and fell in love with the color and the pagentry of it. Doesn't the poster shout the subject of the movie? If you are not familiar with historical novels and films about early England, you might think, "Oh my gawd, this is so over the top." I recently watched a re-run of The Queen at 80, Profile of Queen Elizabeth II, who turned 80 in 2006 and the pomp and circumstance you see is real. Although I had seen this and other programs about England's royal family, I was again captivated by the program, especially the very old footage.

The Other Boleyn Girl is excellent in a super-soap sort of way. I say this not to put it down, but it has all of the elements of a good soap, the kind we claim not to watch. The Boleyn girls, Anne (Natalie Portland) and Mary (Scarlett Johansson) are well-matched in the movie. This is good casting. You seldom Natalie Portman in a role where she is dispicable and I don't think I have ever seen Scarlett Johnasson as 'the innocent.' In the movie, she appears to be weak and easy to manipulate but in the end proves she has courage, backbone and a strong will.

This new film is a remake of BBC's The Other Boleyn Girl from a few year's ago. Both are based on Philippa Gregory's novel of the same name.

The film, The Other Boleyn Girl (2003 BBC Version) and the novel, The Other Boleyn Girl are available from Amazon.com

The film has a PG-13 rating, call me old-fashioned, but I think it is a bit much for young teens to see. Rape, implied incest. See the official film site

Vannie Ryanes, <br />
Classic Film Maven

Last updated: 2010-05-05 07:17:20 by user07

Other Boleyn Girl, The (Justin Chadwick, 2008)

THE SCOOP
Director: Justin Chadwick
Plot: Two sisters contend for the affection of King Henry VIII.

Genre: Drama/History/Romance
Awards: -
Runtime: 115min
Rating: NC16 for mature thematic elements, sexual content and some violent images.

IN RETROSPECT
The Other Boleyn Girl is the kind of film that is unlikely to interest many apart from history fanatics or fans of costume drama. Part of an unofficial trilogy together with Elizabeth, and Elizabeth: The Golden Age, The Other Boleyn Girl documents the scandalous era of the British royal family through the eyes of its lustful beings. Though there are some doubts over The Other Boleyn Girl's historical accuracy, the story is still told in a manner that is at the very least engaging.

The first half of the film is a joy to watch. It features magnificent set decoration and elaborate costumes that are the hallmarks of Britain’s culture centuries ago. Moreover, the excellent cinematography steals some of the limelight away from the cast. It's no Barry Lyndon though, the standard-bearer of the genre in which such pictures are compared to. Because the scope of The Other Boleyn Girl is not quite vast, the film may seem like a lightweight which might give viewers the impression that the film is thin on story.

Eric Bana (Troy, Munich), Natalie Portman (My Blueberry Nights, V For Vendetta), and Scarlett Johansson (Lost In Translation, The Island) play the film's three central characters – Henry Tudor, Anne, and Mary Boleyn respectively. The finest display of the trio comes from Portman, who has matured greatly since the days of Padme Amidala. However, that cannot be said of Bana and Johansson. Bana does not have enough screen presence to portray King Henry while Johansson's performance is too shallow to capture the essence of an innocent sister caught up in a triangle of romance and deceit. Furthermore, the three stars are not of British descent, thus the British accent they use sounds contrived and unnatural. Even for Portman, she sometimes finds herself uncomfortable with her role.

The second half of the film speeds up remarkably, but unfortunately to the film's detriment. This results in a rushed climax that fails to deliver when it could have done so with measured pacing. There’s no fairy tale ending in The Other Boleyn Girl, but there's a lesson or two to pick up. No matter how distinguished one is, it just takes a slight mistake or misjudgment to compound one’s life to misery. Furthermore, societies which refuse to break conventions and traditions will one day fall prey to their own inflexibilities. The Other Boleyn Girl is an average picture that sparkles only sporadically. Not the kind that will cause one to clap in awe when the credits roll.

SCORE: 6.5/10
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Recommendations: Toy Story 3 (Lee Unkrich, 2010), To Kill a Mockingbird (Robert Mulligan, 1962), The Visitor

Singapore's Most Prolific Film Blogger @ www.filmnomenon.blogspot.com

Last updated: 2010-04-22 09:53:13 by eternality_tan

The Other Boleyn Girl (2008)

*½USA

The Tudors get sexed up for the Gossip Girl set. And when Anne Boleyn exchanges serene looks with her sister to imply the courts have set her free, director Justin Chadwick craftily cuts to a wide shot to reveal - gasp! - Anne has been sent to the scaffold instead!!

Eric Bana and his juiced up pecs play Henry VIII, Natalie Portman is a superbitch Anne, with Scarlett Johansson as her docile sister whose love for Luke Perry is bland and true. As ever Bana is stiff in all the wrong parts, Johansson is her usual blank self and while Portman grapples valiantly with a British accent and stolid period-speak, it's to little avail.

The Other Boleyn Girl Wins Five Condoms and a Cold Shower

First you've got to get past Scarlett Johansson's lips. They pouf. They pout. They ooze across the big screen. The Movie Slut suggests a simpler title — "The Other."

Johansson is Mary, the other sister, the one who keeps her head while all those around her are losing theirs. And then there's Anne (Natalie Portman) the consummate Rules Girl. She gets the ring, the king, the bling and the guilloting.

"The Other" is a steamy, historical bodice-ripper in the grand sense of the term. But bearing witness to wanton Royals manipulating common folk made the Movie Slut wanna puke. But that was 1536. Surely such behavior is way passe.

Rest in peace, Princess Di.

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See you at the movies, The Movie Slut

THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL (2008)

BOTTOM LINE: It plays rather like an episode of The Bold of the Beautiful, despite its top-notch cast who aren't given much to do but overact and some fabulous cinematography and production design.

THE GOOD: An historical movie, if done well, is an interesting journey to go on. The movie starts well with some fabulous cinematography, production and costume design. It looks glorious right off the bat. The image of the three kids playing in the field before their lives are disrupted by tricky political manoeuvering and slight of hand is a haunting image and gives you a taste of the danger these kids will face in the future. This film also features a stellar cast headlined by Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson and Eric Bana. The film plays in to the timeline of films such as "Elizabeth" and Elizabeth The Golden Age, taking place before the storylines of those films and in some ways is a complement to those films, especially the latter which also has a healthy sense of melodrama.

THE BAD: You've seen "The Bold and The Beautiful" right? Well, this is the big screen version. I'm not questioning history or the way events like these used to happen, but there appears to be such a 2-dimensional, overacted melodrama at work between sisters Anne and Mary and their interactions with King Henry that make it all a bit silly and I believe its more the execution rather than the content. This may be the royal court but the interactions between all the main players are too steeped in melodrama to make it at all dramatically enticing. Eric Bana as King Henry, although he injects the character with a certain gravity, has less and less to do throughout the film except react like a lost little school boy to the schemings of the two girls, who are also being used by their father and uncle to get better positions with the King. Scarlett Johansson only ever seems to have one look on her face, with only Natalie Portman giving a possible extra dimension to her character but even then... If you like your soap operas you might get in to this, otherwise stay away.

RATING: 5/10

Todd Murphy <br />
http://www.allaboutmovies.net