One for the chopping block.

Rating: 6/10 (16 June 2008)

Another venture into Tudor History Lite. This film has gone the way of the recent HBO miniseries on the Tudors. I admit the Tudor family, with the exception of Elizabeth I, were the B-movie equivalent of English royals, but this film poorly modernizes their lack of sensibility and desperation to build a dynasty on very shaky hereditary ground. The conflicts all seem equivalent to Silicon Valley mergers. Dry, scrubbed clean, and dressed with cable-TV sex scenes. The movie's on-screen talent is immense. I have never seen Natalie Portman acting so badly, so over the top. I have to surmise this was the director's bidding. And what was happening with Mark Rylance's beards? I think that make up person might end up in The Tower. The whole production reminded me of the history pictures of the 1940s and 1950s. However, those beloved old films were great camp and did not take themselves as seriously as this misguided attempt.