NOT faithful to the book!

Rating: 5/10 (1 March 2008)

Did they even READ the book? If you are a fan of the novel, do not see this movie; you will be disappointed.
Obviously, any film adaptation of a novel needs to condense events, and I completely understand that. Some people have criticized the historical inaccuracy of this film, but like the book, it's a work of fiction, so the creators are within their rights--no one is going to see this expecting a documentary. My complaint with this film is how utterly it strayed from the novel. For example, the first 20 minutes or so of the film depict a totally different story than the novel does. The new scenes were not (in my humble opinion) less complex than the novel's opening, so I really have no idea why they chose to drastically change a New York Times' bestseller. Also, a number of crucial details were omitted, such as what happens to William Carey. (Really? They couldn't have spared one line to mention it?)
I did enjoy George Boleyn's performance, as well as Mark Rylance's. Natalie Portman's final scene is stunning and emotional. It is the only part of the movie I would watch again.
If I had not read the book, this may have been a decent movie. However, having read the novel multiple times since it came out (as well as the recent sequel), this was a tremendous letdown. I had been greatly looking forward to this movie for almost a year. I took an hour-long bus ride in the snow to see this movie on its opening day with a fellow fan of the novel (it should have been a 20-minute ride, but the snow/traffic was that bad.) After all that, I hope you can see how disappointed we both felt.
Philippa Gregory is a spell-binding author: read the book, skip the movie.