A Spellbinding Winner

Rating: 8/10 (2 May 2008)

The story of the hapless wives of King Henry the Eighth is not any new. How many films and books do we have by now? Anyway, the new movie is a pretty fresh look at this never getting old story. The film boasts three huge stars  Eric Bana as Henry himself, Scarlet Johansen as Mar Boleyn, and Natalie Portman as unhappy Anna Boleyn. The film offers us a newer look at this story, and the whole 1 hour 45 minutes holds us tight. The plot is very curious and the actors play extremely well. A big cheer must go to Portman for her deep, serious, endearing and earnest performance. Her tragic heroine is very real, very convincing and very deep. Bana is a bit too slow and bleak as Henry, he really lacks some energy at times, and likewise Johansen is all the same frightened scary pretty face with half opened mouth. We saw it many times, did not we? The movie is not bereft of some bias. It seems that the filmmakers did everything to shift the initiative on all things from Henry to Anna. It is her who starts the whole machine rolling; it is her and not him instigating the schism with Pope, divorce and all. Bana seems so weak and passive here, that you start wondering if he is a king after all. Anna sometimes seems so evil and cruel in her plots that her tragic death sometimes looks like something she really deserved. But still, as a whole, this movie is a very good effort that is spellbinding in its portraying of the severe times. Recommended for a fresher look at old, trite story.