A TV movie at best

Rating: 3/10 (19 January 2009)

I had high expectations for this film, loving everything about that time frame. But when it first began, I thought that this looked like a made for TV movie and checked the listing again.
I found the film very claustrophobic, dark, dull and frankly, boring. The costumes were awful - silly really. The girls looked like twins with only the colour of the dresses telling them apart. The dresses were dull, no great patterns, jewelry, or anything remarkable. Even the hair just look flat ironed and boring. True to the time? I don't know - I cannot imagine that they really did not have more variety.
Makeup? Hello! Where was the makeup artist? Even the Egyptians wore makeup. And I could not look at those weird hats after a while. Really? Everyone wore them? Without much variety again? It seemed like all the costumes were recycled over and over again.
The movie felt filmed on sets for almost everything. There was never a sense of space to me, just one set to another, and some really strange shots as if there was a limited space so we needed a body part up close like an elbow then another character in the distance to indicate space. This seemed like a very under-budget way of directing to me.
The acting though I enjoyed, and even if the story wasn't entirely factual, it was fun, and seemed to ring true as to the nature of Anne Boleyn.
Ultimately, this seemed like a TV movie fitted to the big screen (as opposed to the usual vice versa). So much room for so much gorgeousness, wasted in tight shots and dinginess.