The Other Boleyn Girl has everything to offer in gorgeous landscape shots, exquisite costumes and surprisingly impressive acting. Its story, however, based on the bestselling novel by Philippa Gregory, leaves something to be desired.
The story revolves around Henry VIII, king of England, and his relationships with Mary and Anne Boleyn. Anybody who knows English history knows Henry VIII's adulterous habits and the many women in his life. But in The Other Boleyn Girl, Hollywood has decided to squeeze as much sexual content into a PG-13 movie as it can get away with. While one may offer the defense that "you don't actually see anything," the film leaves painfully little to the imagination. The preview prepares viewers for semi-explicit scenes, but it is doubtful the sheer number of these moments or the casual conversation on the subject could have been predicted. Frankly stated questions like "Did he have you?" may make some audience members uneasy, but that's only where it begins. It only makes it worse that the girls competing for the same man are sisters, ones who are extremely close friends at the start of the film.
The friendship and subsequent rivalry between the two Boleyn girls is priceless, and acted with perfection by Scarlett Johansson (Mary) and Natalie Portman (Anne). Each sister essentially wants the same thing -- the king -- but that's where there similarities end. Mary only wants to be loved by the king, whereas Anne has an entirely different agenda. Anne spends most of the film hating her sister and wanting the power of being queen. It's hard to tell if Anne really loves the king, or just can't stand to lose.
Philippa Gregory takes the conniving, manipulative Anne everyone knows and loves to hate and actually finds some sympathy for her. In The Other Boleyn Girl, Anne seems to be a victim of the system. She is forced by her family into trying to sleep with the king. As a consolation prize, the family had hopes of marrying her off a duke after they had become wealthy and powerful. Unfortunately, things don't go according to plan, and as soon as she gets a taste of royal influence she can't stop herself from wanting more. She becomes obsessed with the power of providing a legitimate male heir to the throne. By emphasizing that she is the older sister and the original hopeful to be mistress of the king, Anne provides justification for her malicious behavior. The target of her raging emotions, and scapegoat for all her misfortunes, is Mary.
Mary climbs the English social ladder entirely according to the standards of the time. What this basically means is she does nothing but obey the king unconditionally -- even if that means sleeping with him when she and the king are married to different people. Unfortunately, this obedience and kindness toward everyone makes her character flat and predictable. Unlike Anne, she never acts with hatred or intentionally hurts her sister. It's easy to tell that she'll always come to the rescue and never be upset with her sister for anything except stealing the king's affections.
All in all, this film sometimes resembles nothing more than a large catfight. Which sister audience members root for is determined by whose behavior is the least detestable at any given moment. You'll either find sympathy for the older sister, who just wanted to win for once, or the younger sister, who was just following her king's orders. The fact remains though, if you look specifically at virtue, there are very few characters in The Other Boleyn Girl on whom the label "good" can be sincerely placed.
Read More
The best albums of 2014
By Noah Zeidman | December 4, 2014Across genres, it has been a pretty great year in music.
Top 10 movies of 2014
December 4, 2014This has been an excellent year for film, offering everything from gripping blockbusters to innovative personal films.
Iggy Azalea is “Reclassified”
December 4, 2014It has become common practice among music artists to repackage their albums in an effort to simultaneously boost single sales and dish out new content by slightly renaming the album or slapping “Deluxe” onto the title.
