Not bad but not really compelling

Rating: 6/10 (30 March 2008)

Second version of Philippa Gregory's novel of the Boleyn's family to assure their future by helping the King find an heir, or at least a mistress. The idea is to let Henry take Anne (Natalie Portman) as a mistress, however after a riding accident he is taken instead by the newly married Mary (Scarlett Johansen). What happens next is the movie.
I'm going to plead bias in the viewing of the film. For me this is one of the films where Natalie Portman has been terribly miscast and so it became a challenge to get through. While I don't hate Portman as an actress I do find that she is often miscast to the detriment of the film she is in. Eric Bana, another one of my lesser favorite actors, as Henry actually gives a performance but he also leaves no impression what so ever. I kept wondering where the king was.
The film itself isn't bad. It does seem to have the feel of a larger scale TV movie and does seem to be "modern" in feel, the result is that a good portion of the film seems like dress up time in the English manor house. Part of this is the result of the miscasting of Portman who never seems to belong in the place on screen. I kept waiting for her to walk off the set and into a Porche and drive off. Actually to be fair I felt that way about most of the cast and the unseen crew who could be felt just out of shot.
As I said its not a bad movie, its just not a particularly compelling one.