Anne Boleyn as Lady Macbeth

Rating: 8/10 (13 April 2008)

I didn't read the book, although I have read some of the history, and found myself blown away by "The Other Boleyn Girl". What blew me away was Natalie Portman's awesome performance as the tragically ambitious Anne, whose scheming creates a slippery slope that sends her into desperation and almost to madness before she literally loses her head. I had always regarded her as a great beauty and a charming performer but in this film Ms. Portman becomes a great actress. People have said the film concentrates too much on Anne but it really doesn't. Natalie just so dominates the film you think she's in every scene. She's just in every scene you care about. Hopefully Oscar voters will still care about her a year from now. With the heavy criticism of the film and its lack of box office success, they may not.
The problem, of course is that the film, historically, is nonsense. Every indication is that Anne Boleyn was not like this, (Wikipedia has some very good discussions of this). And if she wasn't the film is not merely inaccurate but a libel on her character. The question is: do we simply accept this and "go with the flow" so we can enjoy the story? Or do we condemn the film and everything in it because of the liberties it takes? Portman blows away every other Anne Boleyn that I've ever seen but the comparison seems unfair because she wasn't really playing Anne Boleyn. She was playing Lady Macbeth, (and showing she'd be very good at it if it ever came to that).
Anne Boleyn seems to be kind of like General Custer- her portrayal depends on the political climate of the moment and the agenda of the writer. The same could be said of the criticism of the portrayals. Many of the alleged inaccuracies are open to debate, (see Wikipedia on the book itself). Perhaps it's best just to look at it as a story and enjoy the blossoming of a great talent. If you have to read the book to find out it's a bad movie and you have to read history to find out it's a bad book, why do either?