Life > March 6, 2008

By CeCe Brooks | Life editor

The first regret I have about writing a review of The Other Boleyn Girl is that I have not read the Philippa Gregory novel on which the movie is based. It might be better if I had read the book so that I could see if the movie’s problems were the faults of the producers and screenplay writer or the story itself.

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The powerhouse cast and writer of The Other Boleyn Girl would normally indicate a great movie, but this is not necessarily true in this case.

The cast is headlined by Natalie Portman as the infamous Anne Boleyn, Eric Bana as Henry VIII and Scarlett Johansson as the lesser-known Mary Boleyn.

I thought it was ironic that in a movie about one of the most famous English kings, none of the major stars are actually British.

Peter Morgan, the writer, also boasts an impressive resume, writing the screenplays for the award-winning The Queen and The Last King of Scotland.

For history majors and Tudor aficionados, the plot line may seem like common knowledge in some parts and ludicrous, soapy fiction in others. The movie starts off with the three Boleyn siblings as young children running in a field while their parents, Sir Thomas Boleyn and Lady Elizabeth, discuss a betrothal request for Anne.

Sir Thomas offers the boy’s family the younger Mary instead because he insists she is simpler and will make a good merchant’s wife.

Next we see the Boleyn estate the day of Mary’s marriage to William Carey (Benedict Cumberbatch).

Anne, although older (this is one of the film’s many inaccuracies as most historians maintain Mary was the elder Boleyn), is still unmarried and eyes the wealthy yet already betrothed Henry Percy (Oliver Coleman).

The film shifts to the royal Tudor palace, where Queen Catherine of Aragon has just given birth to another stillborn baby.

Lady Elizabeth’s brother, the Duke of Norfolk, heads to the Boleyn estate to tell his brother-in-law of the fortuitous opportunity for the family to present the king with a suitable mistress.

The Duke and Sir Thomas decide that Anne is the Boleyn for the job and tell her she will help the family’s social standing and her ability to marry well.

However, Anne’s attitude causes the plan to falter, and surprisingly the king becomes enamored with Mary.

Despite Mary’s initial reluctance, she eventually falls in love with him and becomes pregnant. While she is confined to her bedroom during her pregnancy, Henry loses interest in her and begins to actively pursue Anne.

She refuses to sleep with him unless he marries her and crowns her queen.

We all know this part of the story: the Pope refuses to give Henry an annulment so he breaks from the Catholic Church.

Eventually when Anne also fails to give him a male heir and their relationship declines, Henry has Anne and her brother George (Across the Universe star Jim Sturgess) imprisoned for treason and incest.

Mary comes to court to try to save Anne, but the king ignores her request and Anne is beheaded (which they showed unnecessarily).

There is then a brief montage explaining how all the people from the story ended up and then a description of how Mary basically lives happily ever after.

The previews make it out to be a lot better than it actually is. Gregory’s novel is a best seller, but the writing and the acting fail to make a great movie out of what I’ve heard is a great book.

The other big issue I had with this movie was imbalance.

Although the part of the story involving Anne’s relationship with Henry is very well known and documented (evidenced in Showtime’s outstanding television series The Tudors), the extreme focus on the beginning of Henry and Anne’s relationship and the rush through its demise seems off.

One of my personal frustrations was with the lack of focus on certain characters and actors. I barely even noticed that Jim Sturgess, who has just blown up with Across the Universe, was even in the movie.

His only noticeable point was when his character, George Boleyn, agrees to sleep with Anne to get her pregnant (gross I know) so Henry won’t notice she has had a miscarriage, but then backs out (an important note is this is pure fiction and is founded on baseless claims).

Also, you would think Henry VIII would be a major part of a movie about the women whom he had affairs with, but in this case he was not.

I thought Eric Bana’s importance was extremely minute considering his character. If I had to summarize The Other Boleyn Girl in one word, I would have to say: average.

It wasn’t terrible (I’ve definitely seen worse), but it wasn’t amazing either. If you like history, have read the book or perhaps have a crush on one of the actors, I would say go see it.

If you do not fit into one of these categories I would not suggest spending your money.