Movie Review - The Other Boleyn Girl

In a word: disappointing.
In two: bad source.
In three: underutilized actors flailing.

When the best two performances are of Catherine of Aragon (Ana Torrent) and Lady Elizabeth Howard (Kristin Scott Thomas) in a movie about King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, something is gravely wrong.

(Spoilers lurk below!)

Eric Bana, Natalie Portman, and Scarlett Johansson do well with the material they're given, unfortunately it's not very good material! Eric Bana and Natalie Portman both display complex, rich characters for the film's shallowness and simplicity. The film relies on dialog for exposition, rather than "showing the audience" the situations and events described. It would have been interesting to see the scene where Anne chases after the stag the rest of the hunting party gave up on, and Henry falling from his horse. It would have been interesting to see Anne in France. It would have been interesting to see more scenes of Anne and Henry together after he rapes her.

For the most part, the film glosses over the political and religious decisions that were so influential to England's future, summing them up to a couple scenes of Eric Bana brooding and Natalie Portman saying, "everything is going to work out." The film also ignores Anne's contribution to English politics and society (she was supposedly a fashion icon).

I found Scarlett Johansson's character uninteresting, for the most part. You never really figure out what happens to her husband (he dies, btw) and she spends the entire movie doing everything that everyone else tells her to do while wishing she was living a quiet life in the countryside. Definitely not fascinating, and not interesting enough to base a whole book or movie on her. A more literal (i.e. historical, i.e. factual) interpretation of her life would have been far more interesting. Apparently she was somewhat of a hussy, being mistress to both the kings of France and England, and got herself sent home from France in disgrace for being such a trollop.

I knew the film was going to be bad, but I had no idea how flimsy the script was. Normally capable, the leads all struggled to hold my attention. I found nothing to really like about anyone save for Catherine of Aragon and Lady Elizabeth Howard, who both displayed character depth and pointed out for the other characters that, "dude, this dick measuring contest is stupid."