[Movie Review] THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL
A feminist battle cry if there ever was one.
As a big fan of the Showtime series The Tudors, I was very interested in seeing how The Other Boleyn Girl, which covers the same time period, would stack up. Reviews have been pretty mediocre, so I went in expecting to be pretty bored. I don’t know what movie those critics watched, because I was thoroughly engaged in this flick from start to finish, thanks mostly in part to an absolutely red-hot fireball of a performance by Natalie Portman as Anne Boleyn.
The movie is all about Henry VIII(Eric Bana)’s relationships with Mary Boleyn(Scarlett Johannson) and her infamous sister Anne Boleyn(Natalie Portman), but what I absolutely LOVED about this movie is the manner in which the relationships are presented. The movie does a great job of setting up the stakes for women during this time period. A woman’s worth was determined by what man she was connected to, and in England, connection was everything. If a woman was without a man, she was without power or wealth, and they don’t get any more powerful than the King himself. After Henry’s wife delivers another stillborn child and word spreads about his unhappiness with his lack of a male heir, Anne and Mary’s father and uncle devise a scheme to place Anne in the King’s bed in order to gain wealth and position for the family. Anne’s up for the challenge, but what she doesn’t count on is her younger(and married) sister Mary catching Henry’s eye. Hell, even Mary’s husband approves of her jumping the king’s bones. That shows you just how bent these people really were. But Anne does not take rejection well, and sets out to steal the king from her sister and obtain the ultimate power position: Queen of England. From there, the movie is one big catfight as the women fight it out for the king’s affection.
If you paid attention in history class, you know how this is going to end. I knew how it was going to end, yet I was still captivated by the film. I’ve given Natalie Portman a bunch of crap lately, especially in this review of the godawful Mr. Magorium movie she did a while back. She must have read that review and decided to prove me wrong, because she leaves everyone in this film in her dust. She’s got the juiciest role as the conniving Anne, and she runs laps around everyone. If you’re a fanboy who loves her, you should see this just to drool over these fantastic come-and-get-it looks that she shoots Henry. The way that she seduces him through mind games and teasing put the biggest smile on my face. Yes, she’s conniving. Yes, she stabs her sister in the back. Yes, she’s willing to do some pretty screwed up stuff to maintain her power, but I felt for her and even loved her for it. She was doing what she had to do to survive. She was a woman ahead of her time, and I dug the hell out of her. She is the sort of woman that actresses would kill to play. There’s more than one layer to this onion, and Portman peels back every one: seductress, sister, betrayed wife, ALL OF IT. Not to mention that she’s the mother of one of the most badass women ever, Elizabeth I. The Tudors has a killer actress as Anne Boleyn, but Natalie Portman(and nobody is more surprised by this next statement than me) owns her in this film.
This was a highly difficult role in my opinion, since you had to buy that Henry VIII would break with the Catholic Church just to get under her dress. It’s kinda like when I saw Troy and, upon seeing Diane Krueger as Helen of Troy, thought, “There’s no way that she’s hot enough to launch a thousand ships for!” I didn’t know if Natalie had it in her, but man did she pull it off in spades. I especially loved her performance as the inevitable end approaches and she realizes just how much of a trap she’s placed herself in. Good, good stuff. Anne Boleyn is a feminist icon(my history teacher calls her “Scarface for women”), and I thought that Natalie more than did her justice. I was highly skeptical of her taking this role, but I was really impressed with her, and I’ll be buying the DVD just to watch her performance again. And Atonement’s green dress doesn’t have squat on a little green number Natalie rocks midway through this. God, she ruled!
Scarlett Jo on the other hand…I know that Mary is supposed to be a bit of a pushover, but she was so uninteresting compared to the fiery Anne that I found it hard to believe that any man would pass Anne over for her. I never felt anything for Mary in this movie because Scarlett doesn’t really do much with the role. She mopes around through the entire thing, and Anne basically chews her up and spits her out in scene after scene. I’m not sure if it was the character or the actress, but Mary/Scarlett did nothing for me. She wasn’t bad, but Natalie simply overshadowed her. Same for Eric Bana. He’s not bad and his performance isn’t exactly phoned in, but he didn’t do much to draw my attention away from the badass Anne Boleyn. This isn’t his film anyway. This is the women’s story, and he’s content to sit back and watch the two of them go at it over him.
The movie is never boring for a moment. It’s paced very well, clocking in at just under two hours. I never once checked my watch during the film. The women are actually interesting for a change, and it has some very interesting things to say about the ongoing battle of the sexes. I’m not sure if this is a movie for guys. If you’re into history or Natalie Portman, this might be something that you could enjoy, but there isn’t much violence, save for the ending. No nudity(sorry!), but I really don’t think that the film needed it. Had Bana and Johansson made more of an impression, I could have given this thing five stars with no problem, but I’ll have to settle with…
Nat P, I take it all back. You ARE talented.
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4 Responses to “[Movie Review] THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL”
Look, sorry to just come out right and rail on you here Kris, but you have a ****ing duty to the male readers (i.e me!) here at Stale Popcorn to service them with the information they need to fully judge accurately whether they are going to see this movie or not when you review it. So let’s clear some things up once and for all…
DO EITHER SCARLETT OR NATALIE GET THEIR TITS OUT OR NOT?!?
Oops, my bad, my dsylexia had me skirt over the bit where you said “no nudity”
SEE????? Too busy with titties dancing in your head to read the review correctly! Shame shame SHAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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