Helps fill in some historical aspects of British succession.

Rating: Null/10 (5 August 2008)

We have had the movies about Queen Elizabeth I, and 'The Other Boleyn Girl' might be considered the prequel.
Much more is known about Anne Boleyn, less about her sister Mary. Some historians have Mary as the younger of the two, as she is portrayed here. But others believe Mary was the older.
Natalie Portman is Anne Boleyn and Scarlett Johansson is Mary Boleyn. By my ears they have adequate British accents, and both are superb actresses. The movie starts with them, plus their brother, playing in the fields as small children, and we hear the parents talk of already promising Anne in marriage, an arrangement that will be favorable for the Boleyn family.
The film soon switches to their young adult lives, with Australian Eric Bana as Henry Tudor, King Henry VIII. Set in the 1500s, this was the period where England broke with the Roman Catholic church because the Pope would not allow Henry to divorce his wife who could not give him a son.
As history witnessed, Anne Boleyn eventually married Henry, but that was not satisfactory and for suspicion of incest, Anne was beheaded in a public execution. But their daughter, Elizabeth, was to become the great Queen Elizabeth I of the latter 16th century.
Good movie.