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If you want a good movie about Henry VIII and Anne Bolyen, rent Anne of the Thousand Days. That was a film that used history to tell a story about real people who had a love to change a nation.

In this version of the eponymous Phillipa Gregory novel, historical inaccuracies abound. Approximately fifteen years are compressed into two hours with no indication time has gone by except for various babies. None of the characters ever change or grow any older. The characters in this movie are completely one-sided. Anne is ambitious. Henry is a womanizer. Mary is simple. No one has any complexities. The sisterly rivalry plays out like an underdeveloped soap opera.

On the other hand, the film is engaging and the costumes lovely. Same with the gorgeous palace settings.

Eye candy it is. Truthful or realistic it isn't.

When I first saw the trailer for The Other Boleyn Girl, I have to admit, it looked good, but like it wasn't accurate. I am a huge history buff, especially in the time of England's dark ages, I am fairly familiar with the Boleyn sisters and their affections for King Henry, Anne being the second wife to be executed for committing adultery and not birthing a son heir to the thrown, her life was absolutely horrific if you think about how hard it was to be a woman in this era. I was a little scared that they wouldn't portray her well in this film, but my mom and I saw The Other Boleyn Girl today and even though I'm not fully satisfied with the portrayal of Anne, the movie is still very good. The story has a Hollywood layer to give the story a little more "oomph" sort of speak, like most other pictures, but The Other Boleyn Girl is still a very decent movie.

The Boleyn has quite a family, a mother, father, a son, and two daughters. After failing at several attempts for Queen Catherine to have a son heir to King Henry's thrown, he wishes for a mistress. Sir Thomas Boleyn offers his daughter, Anne, but when King Henry sees Thomas's other daughter, Mary, he is smitten with her and wants her as his mistress. She gives birth to a son, but they are not married and she is looked down upon. Anne is given a second chance to come back after a marriage that was not granted and then annulled, but King Henry then falls for her and wishes her to give herself to him, but she puts up a fight and tells him not until she assumes the crown and to be his wife. But she fails to give him a son, her life depends on it as well sadly.

The true story of Anne Boleyn is very sad, but extremely interesting, I wouldn't recommend the book, just go for a regular history book when it comes to this story. But for the movie, The Other Boleyn Girl, I liked it, it had good acting, beautiful costumes and sets, and a very good story. If you are looking for a history lesson, this is not the film for you, but if you are looking for a good movie, then watch it. Just like the film "Elizabeth", they make the story a little more juicy, it's for the sake of some audience members who don't understand why England has the system it does, but it still makes for good drama.

7/10

All and all, not a particularly enjoyable film.

This movie sacrifices all that was interesting about the novel in the first place just to squeeze in all the historical aspects. All of the page turning scenes in the book that would have been interesting to see translated to screen (Anne's bloodstained dress, the deformed child, the courtship between Mary and William) were cut.

Fortuanatly, I expected that. With such a long book, I had to expect most of my favourite scenes were going to get the axe.

What I didn't expect was for the narration to change from that of Mary (aka. "The Other Boelyn Girl" for which the book was named) to yet another story about Anne Boelyn. The film started off well, if rather slow, with the story being told from Mary, but it quickly changes gears as the audience is suddenly following Anne's courtship of Henry and Anne's trials, emotions and desperation. Mary is quickly delegated to little more then a secondary role, with many key moments happening while she isn't on screen.

The story of Anne was told well, she was portrayed brilliantly by Portman, and had several fun and emotional moments. But that's just the problem, I've seen that all before. There have been dozens of films, series, and books written from Anne's point of view. If I wanted to see a story about Anne, I would have watched Anne of the Thousand Days or maybe "The Tudors" HBO series. What made this story special was it told the story behind Anne and Henry (and it was mostly fictional which added to the drama).

Unfortunately the movie ignored this, and thus failed to create the same reaction I had towards the book.

Another problem is that of characterisation, I expected that the movie would make the two sisters friends as it creates more drama towards the end as opposed to them being not particularly close like in the book. Same with the enormous changes they made in the personalities of the parents (and honestly, almost every character)I expected it. Many of the characters in the movie were actually more two-dimensional then the callous characters from the book. It wasn't as though this movie was badly acted or written...it was just bad.

The person I was most disappointed about was George (one of my favourites in the book) who was given a woefully small role, although the actor who portrayed him did it brilliantly. Also, The character of William Stafford seemed to be added in as an afterthought which confused the audience who hadn't read the book (the two main questions I heard were "Is that the guy she married in the beginning" or "What happened to the guy she married in the beginning") and left those of us who had read the book wondering why he was portrayed as such a pansy?

And the editing, where to begin. Horrible, the particularly poignant scenes (few and far between as they were) were not given enough time to sink in before the audience was whisked off to another scene. Even having read the source material I was lost, so I can only imagine how it must have been from those new to the story.

The only bright side of this tedious film were the beautiful costumes, but even the bright colours and swirly dresses couldn't distract anyone with more then a 10 second attention span and despite them the movie soon became unbearably boring.

All in all, this movie probably shouldn't have been made in the first place. It was apparent there was too much story to tell in two hours, it had mini-series written all over it. But seeing as it had to be made for the film industry to cash in the the books success, it could have been done a lot better.

Overall, the movie is entertaining. I thought the acting was good, particularly Scarlett Johansson's. The cinematography and editing leave much to be desired, and the entire movie seems rushed. If you have any knowledge of Tudor history,you will recognize the many inaccuracies, but those did not bother me as much as did the fact that important characters were omitted, undeveloped, or even seemingly forgotten (as in the case of Mary's husband, William Carey).

There ARE very affecting characters and scenes, but I left the theatre wishing for MORE. The fascinating lives of these people simply cannot be dealt with in a movie that lasts less than two hours.

I think that the main critics done to this film came from those who don't like Natalie or Scarlett. I hope it has nothing to do with the the fact that it is a costum movie - I personally found this film an excellent piece of drama, as well as the book was (I think it's an awesome reading, too!). A perfect cast, a good storyline and a strong screenplay are the main reasons that made "The Other Boleyn Girl" a wonderful screen adaptation - and both Portman and Johansson revealed themselves in one of their best performance ever! I also believe that the choice of casting two of the most brilliant and famous young actresses in Hollywood (perhaps the best ones, right now) was a smart move from the movie producers and - as well as the most fascinating thing about it is the rivalry between the two sisters - let it able to do captivate young people's attention. I really hope this film is going to be a good hit - at least to receive good reviews from the critis...