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The Other Boleyn Girl

Review By: Brian DePasquale
BrianDePasquale @TheCinemaSource.com

I’m not much of a historian, but I suspect one might find a lot at fault with Justin Chadwick’s The Other Boleyn Girl. The film is far too fascinated by soap opera shenanigans of sibling rivalry and sexual promiscuity to take much stock in the realm of factual adequacy. Nevertheless, facts are for history books. If you are looking for history lessons from Hollywood, you are looking in the wrong place. Any institution that casts three non-British actors in the three major roles of a British period piece must have alternative motives. History has nothing to do with it.

Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson, and Eric Bana star in a film that chronicles King Henry VII’s attempts to produce a male heir to his throne after the failures of his Queen become evident. Portman and Johansson are sisters of the Boleyn family, a well-connected and highly ambitious crew that sees Henry’s turmoil as an opportunity to improve their social stature. The plan: have sexy Anne Boleyn (Portman) seduce Henry when he visits their home.

What ensues is not what they had planned. Henry ignores Anne and finds more interest in her more conservative, Amish-like sister Mary (Johansson). Anne gets jealous. The remainder of the film focuses on the love triangle and the consequences of lust and blind ambition the girls and their King cause each other.

The Other Boleyn Girl is saved from made-for-television level consideration due to strong performances by the female leads. While grossly miscast, Johansson and Portman play off each other well onscreen with an oddly charismatic bond of sibling chemistry. Bana, on the other hand, is given an underwritten and hollow characterization of Henry VII to work with. Most of his scenes revolve around him pouting a lot in the dark corners of his quarters or succumbing to seduction faster than a 13-year-old with a Playboy.

The character construction of Henry VII is surprising coming from screenwriter Peter Morgan (The Last King of Scotland). His script for The Queen, another film about Royalty in peril, earned him an Oscar nomination and massive critical acclaim. In that film he was able to weave the conflicted corridors of the Royal psyche with the socio-political impact it had on the nation as a whole. In his more recent affair, Morgan keeps society from the King. All we hear is their screams of displeasure echo from the windows of his castle. Thus, the political decisions he makes have zero impact ...