MOVIE REVIEW: The Other Boleyn Girl (2008)

After fighting back yawns during last year’s dreadfully dull Elizabeth: The Golden Age, the only redeeming quality of which was a tour-de-force performance by Cate Blanchett, I had hoped Tudor-era drama The Other Boleyn Girl, directed by Justin Chadwick, would at least hold my attention given its inspiration: the page-turning bodice-ripper by Philippa Gregory.

Somehow though, the ribald tale of sex, ambition and courtly intrigue pales on the big screen, bogged down by stilted dialogue, questionable casting and an overall sense that the meat of the story was left on the page.

Admittedly, Boleyn Girl isn’t the same kind of stately royal drama as The Queen, screenwriter Peter Morgan’s last cinematic assignment and perhaps one he’s better suited for, and given the book’s nearly-700-page-length there’s a lot of action to fit into one two-hour movie. As a result significant events, like King Henry VIII’s (Eric Bana) historic decision to break with the Catholic Church, are given short shrift, reduced to a single scene.

The thrust of the plot is the rivalry between Boleyn sisters Anne (Natalie Portman) and Mary (Scarlett Johansson). Elder, dark-haired sister Anne is filled with ambition, greed, and envy, while the younger, blond-haired Mary is sweetness and light. Both are beautiful, and when the rumour spreads that Henry’s Queen Katherine may not be able to provide him with a son, their father Thomas Boleyn and scheming uncle, the Duke of Norfolk, hatch a plan to make one of them his mistress in order to provide him with the male heir he desires.

Their initial impulse is to set the bewitching Anne up with Henry, but she tries to hard and puts the King off, leaving Mary to pick up the pieces in her gentle, beguiling way. Henry falls under Mary’s charms, but only briefly, as Anne isn’t about to take her eye off the prize: becoming Queen.

Portman and Johansson in a scene from The Other Boleyn Girl

Of the three leads Portman’s performance is the strongest – she’s plays the devious Boleyn girl in such a way that you see her flaws and the fact that she’s a product of her manipulative family. When she captures the fickle Henry’s affections for the second time you see how hard she’s working to keep them and the toll it takes on her. Johansson has the blander role, as good girl Mary, and as a result the scenes with her aren’t half as interesting as Portman’s.

Eric Bana fares the worst in Boleyn Girl – although it’s not his fault, he’s just not given that much to work with. He looks great as King Henry VIII, more appealing than Jonathan Rhys-Meyers of The Tudors any day of the week. But the characterization leaves a lot to be desired – as King he does little more than stomp his feet and pound his fists when he can’t get the girl he wants into bed. When he finally does get her – or take her, as the story suggests – he turns into quite the little sourpuss at her failure to deliver a son.

On the other hand, Kristen Scott Thomas took a role that was essentially non-existent in the book, that of the Boleyn girls’ mother Lady Elizabeth, and made something of it – helped in part by her powerful delivery of the film’s most effective lines. And as Anne and Mary’s brother George, Jim Sturgess, of last year’s Across The Universe, shows a dramatic ability that suggests his star will continue to rise. I'd argue though that the film's real star is costume designer Sandy Powell - the gowns Portman and Johansson wear throughout are nothing short of stunning.

Both Gregory’s novel and Chadwick’s film are playing-with-facts accounts of the Boleyns’ struggle to win King Henry VIII’s favour – the difference is, the book entertains, while the film only disappoints.

Posted by Cate Jones

Agree? Disagree? Email Cate at criticizecate@gmail.com

The Other Boleyn Girl ** out of 5
Rated: PG-13/14A
Starring: Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson, Eric Bana
Directed by: Justin Chadwick
Written by: Peter Morgan, based on Philippa Gregory's novel
Related links: Official site, IMDB page, Apple trailer