The Other Boleyn Girl

The first version of this story and not bad atall. Mary Boleyn, who was the first sister to catch King Henry VIII's eye and, well, other parts, was the pretty sister. She was married but her father pimped her out demanding she sleep with the king. Once he'd had his way Henry looked elsewhere, all while still married to his loving wife of many years, Catherine of Aragon. Little sister Anne sees all and doesn't let the King have his way with her so easily. I think this is actually better than the later Hollywood-made version, even if this one is a TV movie.

Some strong performances, but with some irritating features. The hand-held camera effects - a bit like 'This Life', I felt, with lots of cutting back and forth - and then asides to camera as though Anne and Mary Boleyn were nipping off to the 'Big Brother' Diary room.

A more important flaw was the lack of development of the religious or political themes - these were seen as background to purely personal conflicts - and, other than early in the film when the Boleyn family are shown discussing how to maintain influence at court - not the driving force behind events.

The 'break with Rome' - for example - is mentioned in passing by Anne in a 'Diary Room' episode as though it is about as significant as next week's BB evictions, rather than as a defining episode in European history.

I have mixed feelings about this film. I appreciated the use of color, it represents the harshness of the time. It's a nice change to see a period piece that's not glamorous. I can imagine it's tempting to make the good looking cast even better looking. The confessions in the camera I didn't understand. I do understand it was an

attempt to make it more intimate. But I don't think it workout that well here. I consider it to modern. It works in comedy like 'the private life of Samuel Pepys'. There it was brilliant. Maybe they could've used a confession setting for these scene's instead of putting them into a room speaking to the camera. And used

more close-ups instead of medium shots. That would make it more intimate and

dramatic.

The acting is superb! I enjoyed to see Jodhi May paying a wicked woman for a

change. She portrayed Anne Boleyn very good Her sick and cruel pleasure to

torture her family by for example trying to marry of her sister to a fat ugly man. Her frightening ambition and abuse of power is portrayed brilliantly.

The actor who played Henry and the actress who played Mary were also

brilliant. The rest of the cast were very complementary to the leading ladies and man.

Very good.

This is not a story about one person. It's about relations between people. This movie explains why Mary survived.

This is really a film worth wile seeing. But don't expect to see a conventional historical epic.

Voted 8

• A-M ---- English is not my first language so please excuse my spelling and grammar

errors

An extraordinary tale of sex, passion and royal intrigue, this is the little-known story of Mary Boleyn, who was mistress to King Henry VIII before he married her sister, Anne. Set during one of the most notorious periods in British regal history, at its heart is the relationship between two rivals - the Boleyn sisters. Starring Jodhi May, Natascha McElhone, Jared Harris and Steven Mackintosh.

If you want superb acting quality together with historical accuracy, this is the one to see.

If you prefer an over-rated, second-class, Americanized remake then go for the Hollywood fluff version. This one will be over your head.

If you're looking for historical accuracy, this is not the place to find it. Although entertaining, the plot (amongst other things), is flawed. In the novel, Philippa Gregory seems to portray Anne Boleyn as a bit of a ruthless strumpet with no brains, and Mary appears as some kind of angelic victim, where history states the opposite.

However, it is supposed to be a romantic fiction, and this is achieved well in the TV adaptation.

Jodhi May portrays Anne as passionate and strong-willed - overall an excellent performance. Natasha McElhone's meek representation of Mary certainly gives her credit as a fantastic actress.

Jared Harris plays Henry, and to be honest I wasn't convinced (then again, Keith Michell is the only man I can picture as the king, so I may be somewhat biased). Harris just didn't seem as harsh and regal as I imagine Henry to have been.

I was very impressed by Steven Mackintosh's depiction of Anne and Mary's brother, George Boleyn. His performance during the scene where Anne and Mary are trying to convince him into incest is especially worth seeing, and this really 'brought the character to life' for me, as I never really pondered on his influence before.

What 'The Other Boleyn Girl' does succeed in, is portraying the Boleyn family's ambitious attempts in using Anne and Mary as pawns to grasp the crown, thus obtaining social power via the favour of the King.

Though it seems to tone down the Tudor court in appearance (the costumes are unrealistically plain), this adaptation certainly gives you an idea of the malevolence during the court at the time.

Overall, a nice film to watch. I wouldn't recommend it to history nuts who are likely to complain at the inaccuracy, but it is enjoyable, and well worth watching nonetheless.