Proto-femme fatale captures the king's fancy and plays him like a lute.

Rating: 7/10 (20 April 2008)

Java Man Reviews "The Other Boleyn Girl" (Rated PG-13. Directed by Justin Chadwick. Written by Peter Morgan. Starring Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson, Eric Bana, David Morrissey, Kristen Scott Thomas, Mark Rylance, Jim Sturgess & Ana Torrent. Running Time: 115 minutes. Originally appeared in LakewoodBuzz.com.
OVERVIEW:
England's Henry VIII (Bana) and his Queen, Katherine of Aragon (Torrent) have been unable to produce a male heir to secure the Tudor royal line. While the Henry decides on a course of action, he finds himself in need of a mistress. The Duke of Norfolk (Morrissey) and Sir Thomas Boleyn (Rylance) realize that their family fortunes can be greatly enhanced if Boleyn makes one of his fetching daughters available for the king's consideration. Strong-willed Anne (Portman, pictured left) is chosen, but soon falls out of favor and is banished to France. Naive Mary (Johansson, right) then catches the king's eye and becomes his lover, even though she is already married to a merchant's son (who approves the match when offered a cushy job at court). By the time Henry loses interest in Mary, Anne is back from France having studied the womanly wiles of the femme fatale. She captures the king's fancy and plays him like a lute. She will gladly submit once his majesty meets a few minor requirements... break with the Church of Rome, annul his marriage to Katharine, and take her as his queen. The rest is history -- and you know some heads are gonna roll.
REVIEW: 2.5 Java Mugs out of 4
This is the story of how the course of human history was changed when the most powerful man in the world risked his kingdom and his soul for the love of a beautiful woman. I'm not sure any movie can do justice to such a momentous theme, and this one wisely doesn't even try. It begins as a mildly interesting, conventional costumer, but somewhere along the way deteriorates into an embarrassingly soapy melodrama.
While the characterizations never rise to the level of the historical figures they are based upon, the acting itself is more than enough to keep the viewer's interest. As the king, Bana seems a strange casting choice. My image of Henry forever remains Charles Laughton gleefully devouring a leg of mutton. Bana's Henry is much younger, more virile and interested in legs, but not of the mutton variety. The problem with Bana is that his kingly bearing is overshadowed whenever one of the Boleyn girls enters the frame.
Portman is nicely naughty as England's most notorious seductress, while Johansson brings the voluptuously innocent Mary as far as the screenplay will allow her. The supporting cast is impressive too, with Morrissey as the dastardly duke of Norfolk, Scott Thomas as a proto-feminist Lady Boleyn and Torrent as the spurned Katharine.
The movie's greatest strength is certainly the art direction and production design. All of the exteriors and many of the interiors were shot in castles and estates that actually date back to the period portrayed. England has what it calls the National Trust, a system that preserves its history all the way back to King Arthur. It's great for tourists... and movie makers, too.
In many movies made in England the setting is often a central character, and -- as in this film -- one of the most interesting.