Critics Know Nothing!

Rating: 9/10 (23 June 2008)

Reading reviews for this movie, I saw that most of the critics found it an awful piece of junk. Like they do EVERY movie! I've learned not to take reviews to heart, for they are almost always bad. There is no in between for these people, only awful movies, or perfect movies. "The Other Boleyn Girl" was NOT, in any way, a perfect movie, but it was brilliant nonetheless.
The story of Anne Boleyn's seduction of King Henry VIII and his famous seceding from the Catholic Church so he could marry her, "The Other Boleyn Girl" also focuses on a previously unimportant factor in this famed tale - Anne's sister Mary, who was also a mistress of the King. In this movie, you get to see how mercilessly Anne is dangled under the King's nose for a potential mistress. When Anne accidentally leads King Henry into a nearly fatal fall from his horse, she is cast aside as the pawn and her sister Mary takes up the position. Anne seems placid enough about this, until the Boleyn's are summoned to court so that the king can get to know Mary better. Anne secretly elopes with one Henry Percy, and Mary tells her father before it leaks out so that her sister's prospects for marriage aren't ruined by it.
Anne, however, doesn't believe that Mary had her best interests at heart, and blames her for her exile to France to wait on the French Queen until her manners have improved. Upon Anne's return, Mary is pregnant with the King's child, and can no longer please him. Anne takes this as an opportunity for revenge, and begins to further seduce their sovereign, whom Mary has come to love.
Of course, everyone knows what happens to Anne - she marries the king and is beheaded - for the fame of her story precedes this movie by hundreds of years, but that doesn't at all reduce the pure drama and excitement of the cat-and-mouse theme of seduction Anne chooses for her conquest.
I thought that the performances reflected the best of Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman's careers (especially Natalie's at the end - wow!), and that the movie itself was a brilliant retelling of both the novel and the timeless story. The costumes weren't bad either - in these movies, the costumes can either make or break the performances, and in this case, they made them. I also must say that "The Other Boleyn Girl" brought up an important point - I'd previously despised the person who was King Henry VIII, for his hypocrisy and cruelty towards his wives, but this film opened my eyes to the fact that all of the people at that time were victims, although they were not innocent. Anne and Mary's lives were completely thrown into chaos because of the ambition of their kinsfolk - Henry himself was a victim of all the rich families who were trying to take advantage of him. You can't feel sorry for a lot of them, but you can sympathize with some of them.
Critics know nothing! This movie was amazing!