Horrible history

Rating: 8/10 (4 May 2008)

Asides from historical inaccuracies, and certain excruciatingly awkwardly written scenes (e.g. the King and Mary's bedroom scene), I thought this movie was quite well done.
I do not agree with naysayers that claim Anne Boleyn was made out to be manipulative and cruel in this movie. She did have instances where she came across as cold-hearted, but the filmmakers did the best job in terms of character development for Anne, because at the end of the movie, in the face of possibly devastating circumstances, her cold facade slips off and we see her genuinely as a Boleyn girl. For me, the final scenes showed her fragility and I began to understand why she put up the front. Perhaps it all boils down to the almost always underrated role of women in court life.
Natalie Portman did a brilliant job and her acting most definitely made me forget the historical inaccuracies. Scarlett Johansson was overshadowed by Portman to some extent, but given that she had extremely limited space to work with as a mostly one-dimensional character, I thought she did provide depth. I think the best thing of the movie is the chemistry because the chemistry of the Boleyn family, and especially between Portman and Johansson, really brought the movie up to a whole new level.