Pretty costumes - and that's it

Rating: 3/10 (13 January 2011)

This is a terrible film, there's no two ways about it. The script is bad, the actors miscast, and it fails to give any real insight into the Tudor era. I can forgive historical inaccuracy in decent films, but this is far from a decent film.
My biggest disappointment is the lack of scope. The budget was clearly blown on making the costumes and hiring the actors, because the entire film takes place in a dingy mansion. Scenes set outside are few and far between. Even the key execution scene, which would have seen hundreds of spectators, has about half a dozen bored-looking extras standing around instead.
Johansson is vacuous and Portman made me cringe at times. Eric Bana is probably the worst actor yet to play Henry VIII (and he knows it), but at least he has little to do. The best actor in the film, Eddie Redmayne (of PILLARS OF THE EARTH) is wasted as a pageboy. I find Philippa Gregory a dry, unengaging author anyway, but I'd hoped this would be a decent adaptation. How wrong I was! As for the bit where Anne is prepared to commit incest with her own brother - ludicrous! They should have just brought in Cromwell making up evidence in his torture chamber, at least that would be closer to the truth.