The girlfriends and wives of Henry VIII - and the children of same

Rating: 7/10 (12 March 2011)

Many are the attempts to tell the wide and deep story of England's talented but power-spoiled Henry VIII and his wives. The intrigue and the ramifications for Europe and the Christian religion are the "wide and deep" of it. This one rates well for acting, costumes, and scenery. Its flaw is in the concept of limiting it to the Boleyn family. That should have been its strength. Something doesn't go right. The skips and jumps, the telescoping in transitions may be the culprit. That's a director's job, and that of his staff. If it were to be otherwise, the story takes more care and not 115 minutes as is allowed here, but about twice that. It has been done. A series. This cast could have been a good one for that re-effort. Portman and Johannson are excellent as the Boleyn sisters. Their ambitious and doomed father and uncle are done very well. And King Henry's actor has the figure and face that could be aged unto his death, shall I say, comforted by his sixth wife. It would then take another few hours to tell the story of the daughter of Anne and Henry, Elizabeth I. History demands this to be told many times, probably each generation. Henry's father, Henry VII, was the last English king to win his title on a battlefield, at Bosworth in 1485, defeating Richard III. It would be good to see the story from that point. It could be carried through to Shakespeare and beyond Elizabeth to James I. Therefore, from 1485 to the earliest part of 1600. That would be something to shoot for. I wanted to see "The Other Boleyn Girl" and did so over a 2.5 hour stretch with 45 minutes of TV commercials. Interruptions were every 10 to 15 minutes, and the ads were a jumble of nothingness as several were stacked without consideration for whatever part of the plot is chopped into. That's what TV has become: the greatest salesman ever invented, and yet powerless to do much beyond brand-naming. It may well be the goose that laid the golden egg but is cut open in greed to find them all -- so greed will kill it. Television is not an entertainment medium so much as it is an advertising medium. Rent the movie for a better experience and a chance to appreciate.