Tag: film

So, you all know that I love me some Philippa Gregory. I’ve read all of her books about the Tudors/Wars of the Roses/Elizabeth I. Heck, most of the reviews I’ve posted are related to her.

The other day, after I finished “The White Princess” book, I realized I haven’t read my first Philippa Gregory novel in a while. That novel is “The Other Boleyn Girl.” It was my first foray into the world of Historical Fiction, and I loved it. Now, after having read so many novels regarding Anne Boleyn, I see how flawed the novel really is. But I digress. This review is about the movie. Now, this is not the first time I’ve seen the movie, but it is the fist time since I’ve read many books on the subject.

The movie stars Scarlett Johansson, Natalie Portman, and Eric Bana. Johansson plays Mary Boleyn, who is the younger Boleyn daughter (though there are some who think she was really the oldest), Portman plays Anne Boleyn, and Eric Bana plays Henry VIII. Now, my first impression was that it was sorely miscast. Natalie Portman is more innocent, whereas Scarlett Johansson is the “sexier” of the two. I figured that Johannson should play Anne and Portman play Mary, but it’s very much the reverse. And while Bana is no Johnathan Rhys Meyers (who is the perfect Henry VIII), I did find that Bana’s quiet anger fit more for Henry. I was also surprised to see Benedict Cumberbatch and Eddie Redmayne in the movie, but I don’t know them well enough to know their IMDB profile beyond their most famous roles.

The plot of the movie is standard “Tudor” storytelling. Henry is married to Katherine of Aragon, has an affair with Mary Boleyn, who has two of his children (one a boy), falls for Anne Boleyn. Anne forces him to put aside Katherine, as she would not sleep with him unless they were married. Since the pope wouldn’t grant a divorce, Henry split and created the Church of England, of which he was the Supreme Head. This allowed him to grant himself a divorce under the pretext that he and Katherine married against the teachings of the bible, which was evidenced at their inability to conceive an heir (as they only had Princess Mary). After Henry marries Anne, she too is unable to conceive an heir (save for Princess Elizabeth). Henry believes that she is guilty of witchcraft, incest, and cuckolding him, so he puts her on trial. She’s found guilty and is beheaded. The movie ends with Mary taking Elizabeth to the country to raise her with her own children.

Now, I have many problems with this movie. For one, they depicted Mary as married to Henry Carey. Later, they show her married to William Stafford. They don’t tell what happened, which is very confusing. There is a deleted scene which shows Carey dying of the Sweat, but they left that out of the final film. They could have made an offhand mention of her husband dying, but the way they have it is just confusing.

I also have issue with the fact that they only show Mary giving birth to one child, her son Henry. In reality, Mary gave birth first to Catherine, then later gives birth to Henry. Where this would just be a historical inaccuracy, it’s troublesome because they show both of her children playing with Elizabeth at the end of the movie, with the daughter clearly being the older of the children. While this could easily be dismissed as the girl being just another child, as someone who has read many books about this era, it’s just strange.

The acting is okay. While I believe it was miscast, I found that only Bana’s performance was believable. I would love to have seen a version with the girl’s roles reversed. I also would have liked to see a little bit more of Stafford and Mary’s relationship. The movie doesn’t really discuss how they came to be together, which is a shame because their story is very sweet. He was one of her uncle’s men and she gave up quite a lot to marry him for love.

As for the claim that Anne had an incestuous relationship with her brother George, I like how the movie handled it. The movie has Anne vehemently denying that any such thing took place, where the book insinuates that it most certainly did. I think that this is one of the movies few redeeming features. I don’t believe that the incest happened, as do many historians. While it does seem like George and Anne were very close, incest just seems like they needed to add another charge with which to arrest Anne.

I do realize that often the book is different than the movie and that they have to cut out a lot for runtime and other reasons, but this movie does it very poorly. It leaves out a lot of important points which could have easily been addressed with an additional half hour of runtime. I think that it would have benefitted from the extra time, but alas, we have what we have.

If you wish to purchase or stream “The Other Boleyn Girl,” you can find it here.