Fascinating History, Entertaining Presentation

Rating: 8/10 (21 July 2008)

I give all credit to Scarlett and Natalie. What a great combination they made, two of the best of their generation. It doesn't seem like a very common thing to let two actresses of their age carry a film, so I also offer a solute to the director for the cast. I also happen to like Kristin Scott-Thomas, though I'm not so impressed with the roles she gets to do. I think she was marvelous as the mother. I'm not so certain about Eric Bana as Henry VIII. Henry was an imposing figure in his era, and I'm not sure Bana has the charisma to pull it off (I liked him better as Hector, though even there I didn't get the heroic stature that I thought a semi-mythical figure ought to have). I wonder how Stellan Skarsgard might have been as Henry. Ah well.
Truth is that now that I've seen this movie, I think I do want to see Anne of a Thousand Days. My reading of Anne's history is that she wasn't sent to France for misbehavior, she went there because she wanted to and stayed longer. So maybe I'll have to go back and look at the story again. If history had gone the way this movie did, I'd have been tempted to think the royal French court deliberately taught Anne so that she'd sow dissension at home since the English and French courts had a long history of jousting for preeminence in the European power scene. If Anne had to "take it in the neck" from such power politics, I'm sure France wouldn't mind that at all, would think it served her father right for his own use of girls to "advance" his family.
Anyway, I got it for Scarlett, who has the same effect on me she had on Henry. And she showed me once again how amazing she is, even fully clothed!