An awesome and ridiculous film that leaves you thrilled beyond the point of your natural endurance
2012
Theatre
The show has suddenly become quite wonderful, and the galvanising factor is the terrific stage debut of Melanie C
Blood Brothers
Music
The British pop music industry may be eating itself but if Muse are the pick of what it can offer the world in 2010 then British music is in rude health indeed
Muse
I was smitten by both Gilberts enormous luxuriant moustache and the intelligence and nuance of this highly entertaining play
I totally recommend Babbo to anyone who is looking for really good and traditional Italian food
Always been a fan but never seen them live. I was ecstatic to be part of this epic event. WOW!
London,
Derek Malcolm's rating
Reader rating
Dir: Justin Chadwick.
Cast: Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson, Eric Bana, Kristin Scott Thomas, Jim Sturgess
Description: Like many fathers of the time, Sir Thomas Boleyn is determined to secure his family's power and status through the marriages of his children: a son, George and two daughters, Anne and Mary. With Mary betrothed to William Carey, Thomas agrees to help his brother, the Duke of Norfolk, secure Anne's place as the king's new mistress. Unfortunately, King Henry favours Mary and she bears him a child, which he hopes will be a male heir to the throne. With her sister consigned to her bed throughout pregnancy, Anne resolves to seduce the king and seize the throne herself.
Country: UK. 2007. 115mins
Short on shocks: Peter Morgan's script only glides over the subtleties of Philippa Gregory's novel as Mary Boleyn (Scarlett Johansson, left) has an affair with the king only to be usurped by her sister Anne (Natalie Portman)
Unconvincing: Portman gives a portrait of a bitchy, ambitious sister
Not many bodices get ripped in Justin Chadwick's film of Philippa Gregory's best-selling novel, even though it is largely about the sexual demands of Henry VIII and the abortive attempt at incest by Anne Boleyn to procure him the son he so desired. It is almost as if this particular piece of period drama doesn't want to shock too many of its intended audience.
But Gregory's book isn't easy to translate excitingly to the screen for another reason. Its chief virtue, apart from its somewhat startling view of Tudor history, relies on the depth of characterisation she affords to the Boleyn sisters, her central characters - and that is difficult even for a screenwriter as shrewd as Peter Morgan to parallel. For a start, there's too much plot to get through.
Granted, the film looks good, with excellent costumes from Clare Spragge and her team, and production design from John-Paul Kelly that is more than satisfactory.
But what is left is like a rather hurried version of the novel, requiring more flair from its director or a script, and thus acting that makes more of a mark.
With only a modicum of subtlety, the story of Henry VIII is outlined - his romance with Mary Boleyn, the dumping of Katharine of Aragon and the machinations of Anne Boleyn, Mary's sister, to become Queen. Credibility is sometimes strained even by the book; this movie requires a more wholehearted suspension of disbelief.
At the centre of it all is Scarlett Johansson's Mary who, within a few sequences, changes from an apparently happily married young country girl into the King's squeeze after both she and her husband are given posts at court for that very purpose. We hardly see the husband again, while she gets pregnant, produces a longed-for son for Henry (Eric Bana) and finds him refusing even to look at the boy.
By this time, he's fallen for Anne (Natalie Portman), so Mary is sent off home. This doesn't please Mother (Kristin Scott Thomas) but Father (Mark Rylance) and the scheming Duke of Norfolk (David Morrissey) reckon that substituting one sister for another in the King's affections will still make their fortunes.
Everyone must know that, in the end, Anne, unable to give the King a son, is dispensed with even more cruelly on a trumped-up charge of adultery, with Mary looking on sympathetically as the sword rather than the axe is used to execute her.
What Gregory posits, and it really is only a guess, is that Anne had a miscarriage without telling the King and then asked her brother to sleep with her in a desperate attempt to become pregnant again. There were rumours of witchcraft and incest at the time. But who really knows the truth of the matter?
Johansson as Mary, putting on her Girl With a Pearl Earring expression of innocence but adding a certain wide-eyed intelligence to the equation, is more convincing than Portman, whose portrait of a bitchy, ambitious but not entirely unlikeable sister only really comes into its own as she faces her accusers and makes a defence she knows won't wash.
As Henry, Bana is not the disaster poor Ray Winstone was on the telly (in Henry VIII, another Morgan script), though he seldom suggests the mighty but flighty monarch who told the Pope where to get off and changed the course of English history.
One of the best performances, admittedly in a small role, comes from the Spanish actress Ana Torrent (who first appeared as the little girl in Victor Erice's masterpiece, Spirit of the Beehive in 1973) as Katharine of Aragon - though she would surely have said "brava!" rather than "bravo!" to Mary after making the young girl sing for her.
Another to provide much-needed fire is Kristin Scott Thomas as Lady Elizabeth, trying desperately to do what is best for her pretty daughters. But neither Mark Rylance nor David Morrissey can do much with their parts as Sir Thomas, their father, and the Duke of Norfolk. Too often there is little for the cameo players to get their teeth into.
The Other Boleyn Girl relies on period pageantry, nasty male politicking and the kind of instant character drawing that takes the eye but scarcely feeds the mind.
Gregory's readers may be satisfied with this but they may also miss, as I did, the book's psychological undercurrents. The skeleton remains but not a great deal of the flesh.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
The film is visually a pleasure and, as ever these days, filmed in all the most impressive locations. However the historical facts of the film are rubbish - Mary had her affair with Henry VIII BEFORE her marriage to Carey, who in the film is certainly not a friend or confidante to the King. In real life both Mary & Anne were sent to the French court long before they were at the English one, and Mary was sent back home following scandal about her many sexual dalliances. She was certainly the mistress of the French King, Francois I, who called her his "English Mare". It is believed, although not 100% certain, that Mary was older than Anne and the film makes her out to be naive, charming and pliable, whilst historical knowledge proves her to an entirely different character.
I understand that to make films more exciting and sell-able to the general public, which lacks much detailed historical knowledge, all sorts of rubbish is written into a story, but I do hope that anyone even vaguely interested in the Boleyns will Google the name and discover the actually more interesting life of this influential family.
Otherwise just see the film for what it is - a story of sumptuous places and costumes.
- Julia, Winchester, UK
Anne Boleyn was very ambitious and she saw the throne and she wanted no matter who she stepped on. The book "The Other Boleyn Girl" is half true half made up as with the show "The Tudor's". The movie was OK. To know the truth you have to read legitimate books as I did.
Anne was very cruel to Mary. Anne took away Henry her son and made him her own in hopes of having a legit heir for HenryVIII. Mary was very strong and stood up for herself and her children, she never liked being in court and she banished herself until it was officially done. I m reading the book and some is very far fetched but makes for a good read.
- Bobbi, Danbury, CT
This film, whether faithful to the novel or not, presents a blatant and outspoken militant feminism, in the character of Anne. My opinion is that Henry would have bent her over a table far sooner than the movie allows - probably well before the marriage. Had Natalie Portman been the real Anne, she might have lost her head long before any marriage.
- David, Minneapolis, USA
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