enjoyable but historically questionable costume drama

Rating: 6/10 (31 December 2008)

Though no "A Man for all Seasons" by any stretch of the imagination, Justin Chadwick's "The Other Boleyn Girl" is a handsomely mounted, reasonably entertaining soap opera set in the politically-charged court of King Henry VIII.
Based on the highly fictionalized and speculative novel by Phillipa Gregory, the movie chronicles the 16th Century catfight between the two Boleyn sisters - the more famous one, Anne, whose marriage to the divorced king resulted in England's final rupture with the Church of Rome (and the eventual loss of her own head when she, like his first wife Catherine, could not provide him with a male heir), and the lesser known, already married Mary who, at least as portrayed in this film, was every bit as attractive to the king as the sister who would eventually win his hand.
The Peter Morgan screenplay reduces the complex historical events to the level of a Harlequin Romance, pitting the two sisters against one another in a competition for the king's affections. All of this is of considerably less interest than the almost ruthless, behind-the-scenes machinations undertaken by the girls' family to groom them as concubines for the crass purpose of currying royal favor. In fact, it is when the movie touches on the mores of the time and of life at court that it is at its most compelling.
Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson and Eric Bana all seem to be having great fun playing at dress-up, but the richest performances are delivered by Mark Rylance and David Morrissey as the girls' calculating father and uncle respectively, and Kristin Scott Thomas as their levelheaded, pragmatic mother, helpless to prevent the tragedy that was doomed to engulf her family.
The costumes and settings are nothing short of sensational, and they alone maintain our interest even when the scriptwriting fails to live up to the level of its subject.