'Boleyn Girl' is a royal pity
'Boleyn Girl' is a royal pity
Posted by
SinFuLsiGnoRiTa 262 days ago
"The Other Boleyn Girl" is the kind of potted historical drama that's not good enough to take seriously and, sadly, not bad enough to be any fun. It's handsome, heavy-breathing, and silly - British royal history with the DNA of a "Gossip Girl" episode.
The film's also the latest in the Tudor-chic cottage industry: all those Elizabeths on film and TV, "The Tudors" ripsnorting away on Showtime, and, of course, Philippa Gregory's popular novels, of which 2002's "The Other Boleyn Girl" was the first. (She has since written five more, cranking them out like "authentic" period sausage.)
The attractions, as ever, are the outsized palace personalities, here a young, rapscallious Henry VIII (Eric Bana, miscast) torn between two warring Boleyn sisters, mouseburger Mary (Scarlett Johansson) and man-eater Anne (Natalie Portman). Both are his mistresses but only one is holding out for a crown. What's a king to do? Apparently everything but run the country.
Directed by Justin Chadwick, with a screenplay adapted by Peter Morgan ("The Queen") on one of his lesser days, "The Other Boleyn Girl" shows Henry initially lusting for the older Anne, then falling for the warmer, younger Mary, then switching course one or two more times. And you thought you and your siblings had issues.
The film's also the latest in the Tudor-chic cottage industry: all those Elizabeths on film and TV, "The Tudors" ripsnorting away on Showtime, and, of course, Philippa Gregory's popular novels, of which 2002's "The Other Boleyn Girl" was the first. (She has since written five more, cranking them out like "authentic" period sausage.)
The attractions, as ever, are the outsized palace personalities, here a young, rapscallious Henry VIII (Eric Bana, miscast) torn between two warring Boleyn sisters, mouseburger Mary (Scarlett Johansson) and man-eater Anne (Natalie Portman). Both are his mistresses but only one is holding out for a crown. What's a king to do? Apparently everything but run the country.
Directed by Justin Chadwick, with a screenplay adapted by Peter Morgan ("The Queen") on one of his lesser days, "The Other Boleyn Girl" shows Henry initially lusting for the older Anne, then falling for the warmer, younger Mary, then switching course one or two more times. And you thought you and your siblings had issues.
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