The Other Boleyn Girl review: "a highbrow soap opera." My opinion: It is nothing at all like the actual history, but goes with stereotype and gossip. But it looks great visually
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Anne was in France when Henry began his affair with Mary. When Anne returned to England, she was betrothed to Lord Percy, the Earl of Northumberland. She was in love with him and wanted to marry him, but no couple could actually marry without the permission of Henry VIII. He first saw Anne at a party at Yattendon Castle, where she was dancing with her fiancee. He decided he wanted her, and no amount of her begging and refusal of his advances could dissuade him; he forbade the couple from marrying, and no one could change his mind. The Earl moved on and eventually married another. Anne was not only heartbroken, she was very angry. She evaded Henry for a long time, saying many sarcastically witty things that would have gotten most people imprisoned. She always pointed out that Henry was married and she wanted nothing to do with him. It is true that Anne's father was extremely ambitious. He had gained a great deal from Mary's association with the king. But the king had grown tired of Mary as a mistress and set her aside by the time he was developing an interest in Anne; Mary was pregnant and no longer amusing to him. Most versions of history state that was the time when she was married off to Carey. Father Boleyn made much of the fact that Mary had never asked for anything from the king, and therefore received nothing.
Anne was in a tight spot and was unable to refuse the king forever with all the pressure in the world against her. She was not just a social-climbing ruthless bitch, as this movie apparently shows. She did decide if she was unable to get out of the situation, she would make the most of it. And she did, even getting back at enemies who took such great glee in telling her she was unable to marry her fiancee, such as Cardinal Wolsey. She helped remove him from power. And she did throw it out that if he was going to pursue her unendingly, he should marry her. She did not want to end up pregnant and discarded like her sister.
Henry had already begun to think, and to vocally profess, that he believed his marriage with his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, was cursed by God. Catherine had been brought as a young bride from Spain to marry Prince Arthur, Henry's older brother. They were married for about 6 months when Arthur became ill with a fever of some kind, and died.
She claimed the marriage had never been consummated, and so she was kept around the court. She went through many hard times as a discarded bride. Eventually, the growing Henry professed his love for her, and they were married. When the marriage failed to produce sons, Henry began to proclaim the marriage was invalid and had been cursed, as no man should marry his brother's wife. The charge leveled against her in court, during divorce proceedings, was that she had concealed the fact that she must have consummated the marriage with Arthur and therefore brought God's wrath against Henry.
Catherine adamantly refused this; and in fact, spoke out in court saying that Henry himself knew the charges were false and had every reason to know himself from their wedding night that she had never been with another man. Henry blushed furiously in court, but did not disagree with her. Still, he pursued the charge because he wanted to be free to marry again.
Arthur was always sickly, and most people believed Catherine was telling the truth.
There are many other points to make, but I would encourage people to try to learn more about the actual history, which is far more compelling than what people tend to think.
One note of interest: that night that Anne was first seen by Henry at Yattendon Castle... she dropped a handkerchief, and it was retrieved by Henry Norreys, the man who owned the castle. All he did was pick it up on the dance floor and return it to her. He was a good friend of the king, and became friends with Anne. Years later, the rumor mill stated that Norreys must have always been Anne's lover, and the proof was that he had retrieved her handkerchief. That rumor was presented as proof in his trial. Norreys was executed as one of Anne's supposed lovers around the time Anne herself was executed. (Anne did not have an affair with any of the men she was accused of being with; even her brother was proposed as her lover. He was executed as well.)
Review: `Boleyn' a highbrow soap opera
By CHRISTY LEMIRE, AP Movie CriticWed Feb 27, 5:41 PM ET
The clever casting alone had promise: the role reversal of the va-va-voomy Scarlett Johansson playing sweet country girl Mary Boleyn and the pixieish Natalie Portman playing her scheming vixen of an older sister, Anne.
Add hunky Eric Bana to the mix as Henry VIII, jumping back and forth between these two contrasting beauties in his fiery youth, and the possibilities seemed even more intriguing.
Instead, "The Other Boleyn Girl" too often comes off as an unintentionally campy, highbrow soap opera — albeit one with elaborate production design and richly textured costumes (the work of Sandy Powell, an Oscar winner for "Shakespeare in Love" and "The Aviator").
Director Justin Chadwick's film, based on the best-selling novel by Philippa Gregory, looks great, the high-definition heightening both the grit and glamour of 16th-century England. But surprisingly, the script from Peter Morgan, who had a terrific year in 2006 between "The Queen" and "The Last King of Scotland," vacillates awkwardly between sexy romp and serious — and seriously violent — period piece.
The American actresses, putting on British accents, seem ill at ease at first, but Johansson settles nicely into her role as the Boleyn sister with more complex, conflicting emotions of love and loyalty. It's another example of the range that exists within this young actress, who's lately been in need of a hit. (This ain't it.)
Portman's Anne Boleyn is all ruthless flirting and conniving, but she can't quite pull it off; rather, it feels as if we're watching the petite starlet playing dress-up for a high school production. (Her transformation into the Queen of England is a bit more palatable, though, than her reign as Queen Amidala of Naboo in "Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace.")
When we first meet the Boleyn girls as children, they're frolicking with their brother, George (played as an adult by Jim Sturgess from "Across the Universe") in a meadow at their country estate. Eventually word comes that the King of England is frustrated by the inability of Queen Katherine of Aragon (Spanish actress Ana Torrent) to produce a male heir.
So the girls' father, Sir Thomas Boleyn (Mark Rylance), and his brother-in-law, the Duke of Norfolk (the brashly villainous David Morrissey), hatch a scheme to invite the king for a hunting trip and trot the saucy Anne before him. They hope that if he finds her pleasing, he'll take her as his mistress, she'll get knocked up, pop out a boy, and voila! The whole family will benefit financially. This would be known as "pimping out" — and the girls' mother, played by a steely Kristin Scott Thomas, understandably is not amused.
But what ends up happening is, Henry finds himself attracted to the innocent, fair-haired Mary instead, and doesn't care that she's just gotten married to the equally innocent, fair-haired William Carey (Benedict Cumberbatch). The king invites the whole family to court, including Mary's namby-pamby husband, and proceeds to seduce her.
Thus begins a series of pregnancies and miscarriages, crosses and double-crosses, interspersed with long stomps down stone corridors and the clomping of horse hooves. Anne is shipped off to France for potentially embarrassing the family but returns educated, sharp-tongued and more ambitious than ever (in a dazzler of an emerald-green gown). Now the king finds himself drawn to her, which seems illogical the way it's quickly and superficially depicted here; Henry brags of his ability to see through people's intentions, hence his attraction to the guileless Mary, yet it's the exact opposite behavior in Anne that ultimately turns his head.
Through it all, the sisters' loyalty is tested. Anne is all too happy to turn her back on Mary in pursuit of the throne — and even revels in getting a few digs in, asking the pregnant Mary, "Do you feel as awful as you look?" But except for a hissy fit here and there, and of course a breakdown at her climactic, final moment, it's a one-note performance of pure, unabashed social climbing.
Your eyes will probably roll before anyone's head does.
"The Other Boleyn Girl," a Columbia Pictures release, is rated PG-13 for mature thematic elements, sexual content and some violent images. Running time: 114 minutes. Two stars out of four.
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In this image released by Columbia Pictures/Focus Features, Natalie Portman portrays Anne Boleyn, left, and Scarlett Johansson portrays her sister Mary in 'The Other Boleyn Girl'.
(AP Photo/Columbia Pictures/Focus Features, Alex Bailey)
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