Tag: Scarlett Johansson

Shanna:

The Other Boleyn Girl is the long awaited adaptation of Philippa Gregory’s beloved historical novel by the same name. There is always a risk to bringing a well-known novel to the big screen. Will the film connect with the audience like the novel? Yes and no.

The film beautifully creates a romantic English countryside of Henry the VIII’s (Eric Bana) early reign. King Henry is unhappily married to his first wife Queen Katherine of Aragon (Ana Torrent) who has not been able to provide him with a male heir. Aspiring aristocrat Sir Thomas Boleyn (Mark Rylance) invites the King to his rustic home to hunt and more importantly to meet his single daughter Anne Boleyn (Natalie Portman). To everyone’s surprise, King Henry falls for Anne’s sister Mary Boleyn (Scarlett Johansson) who was recently married. Throwing all decorum out the window, the Boleyn family sends Mary to London to become the King’s mistress with a jealous Anne following behind. Mary quickly becomes pregnant with the King’s bastard child. As Mary is bedridden with child, Anne is sent by her power hungry uncle Thomas Howard (David Morrissey) to keep the Kings favor. Anne quickly seduces the King, sends Mary away to the country, and convinces the King to divorce his wife, causing England to break ties with the powerful Catholic Church. Anne’s vindictive and selfish actions come back to haunt her when she is unable to provide the King with a male child. In the end, Anne loses everything including her head.

Justin Chadwick beautifully directs this film, transporting you to the scenic English countryside with breathtaking manors and lush rolling fields, then to the dark and gloomy castle of the King.

The casting was well done except for Eric Bana as King Henry. Henry VIII is an infamous character that is larger then life; his essence should dominate every scene. Eric Bana comes across as too soft even when he is supposed to be psychotically angry. On the other hand, Natalie Portman is extremely aggressive and domineering, verging on an overly melodramatic performance. Scarlett Johansson was sweet and angelic, but also boring as usual. David Morrissey stole the show with his power hungry Thomas Howard.

I recommend watching the film before reading the book. The film leaves some key plots out such as what happens to Anne when she is sent away to the French Court. She is shipped off one minute and back the next. I was left with a feeling of wanting more from the film as a whole.

Zac:

This adaptation of the hit novel fails to create any real emotion nor evokes us to really care about our leads or anyone involved in this historical period piece.
Scarlet Johansen and Natalie Portman star as Mary and Anne Boleyn, respectively, starting off as pawns in their families bid to gain favor and power with King Henry the VIII (Eric Bana), with the lies, deceit, and intrigue leading to a struggle for power and love from the King.
The plot and script as a whole comes across as the lite version of the proceedings, with the story skimming over small details with little to no motivation for what is going on, leaving us wondering why we should care so much about the proceedings in the first place.
Anne was originally elected by her family to steal the king’s favor and serve as his potential mistress but it is Mary who steals his affection as she tends to him after injuring himself on a hunt while staying at the Boleyn manor. Anne, Mary, and family are all whisked off to court and slowly become more and more favored by the king especially after the pregnancy of Anne become known. Henry’s need for a male aire drives the proceedings of the film forward and is the focal point in which the plot revolves from here on out. I will not divulge more into story other then to say that it really fails to pack any sort of punch throughout the course of pretty much the entire film.
The acting in the film is just blah from everyone as well and these are some fine actors working here as well. Though, I will say that the weak script and dialogue definitely probably had something to do with this and the actors seem to have their hands tied with anything to really work with. Jim Sturgess actually probably does the best work out of the cast playing the brother George Boleyn who also ends up forced into situations he can’t handle by the conniving elders of the Boleyn family. The uncle of the Boleyn’s, and the Duke of Norfolk, is also played to great effect by David Morrissey as we love to hate him as he manipulates the family to his bidding. Outside these characters though, there isn’t anything to really write home about and that’s saying something when Eric Bana is in the cast, who I regard as one of the best actors around.
When it’s all said and done, this movie isn’t nearly as effective as it thinks it is, and even comes off as a bit pretentious. The script cripples almost everything in this film and the direction leaves a lot to be desired. The acting is nobodies best and the film as a whole is pretty much forgettable. The movie is at best a historical soap opera that doesn’t even really succeed at that very well. I can’t really recommend this unless you really wanted to see it, in which you should seek it out and judge for yourself because you might find something you like, even though all I found was a whole lot of blah.

(2.5 out of 5)

PG-13 for mature thematic elements, sexual content and some violent images

World Wide Box Office Gross: $64.8 Million

[rating: 3/5]