Weak and disappointing...

Rating: 6/10 (22 October 2008)

I read the historical novel by Philippa Gregory before I saw this movie so maybe my expectations were too high... but what a terrible disappointment this movie was to me. My main problem with this movie was the horrific weakness in every inch of it. It didn't examine the themes in the book with nearly enough grit or depth and if I were Gregory I would be embarrassed to have my name associated with this soft, teen fluff...
Eric Bana as Henry VIII... whose bright idea was THAT? He was fake, stereotypical and way too clean cut for the adulterous, revolting, chauvinistic fiend Henry VIII was. Natalie Portman was passable... but Johansson was revoltingly flimsy as Mary, which is accurate to a point... but her blandness was just painful.
They skated over issues that they obviously dubbed too scandalous and confronting (i.e. incest, homosexuality etc) and instead presented us with this fluffy, flimsy, weak... THING with no backbone and less substance than its main actors... This was just a Hollywood corrupted crowd pleaser and I am saddened that this, THIS represents such a fantastically gritty, unpretending and absorbing novel. Tsk tsk