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Reviewed by Evelyn Hartogh
Those familiar with Philippa Gregory’s novel of the same name will note minor changes to the focus of the narrative in the film adaptation of The Other Boleyn Girl. Gregory’s novel concentrated on Mary Boleyn’s early life as the mistress of King Henry VII and her later support of her sister Anne as she worked hard to seduce and marry the King. While Gregory’s novel placed Mary as the ‘other’, in director Justin Chadwick’s film the ‘other’ is her sister Anne, and her ambition to be Queen is constructed as being motivated by her jealousy of Henry’s love for Mary.

Early in the film Anne declares herself to be ‘the other Boleyn girl’ when her younger sister Mary marries ahead of her. Anne’s jealousy of her sister is further compounded when her family attempts to make her the mistress of the King; instead he takes a shine to her sister Mary. While the performances of Natalie Portman (Anne Boleyn) and Scarlett Johansson (Mary Boleyn) are compelling, they tend to be too firmly the mirror opposites of each other. While Mary is gentle, kind, honest and pious, Anne, on the other hand, is manipulative, callous and seemingly without conscience. While on a whole the film is deeply, and satisfyingly, dramatic and exciting, the lack of complexity in the central women is rather disappointing and does not depict the depth and compassion that Gregory showed these women in her novel.

Phillipa Gregory’s historical novels about the lives of the forgotten women of history often take a subtle feminist stance in the ways in which they show the frustrations these women faced in a world controlled by men. Chadwick’s film does at least take on board these themes and uses the mother of Anne and Mary, played with regal grace by Kristin Scott Thomas, as the voice of these concerns. Lady Elizabeth Boleyn is quick to point out to the men in her family that they are using her daughters as cattle to further their ambitions for titles and property. The Boleyn girls are essentially pimped out to the King to increase the status of the Boleyn family.

Peter Morgan’s screenplay, like the many film adaptations of novels, is limited by the timeframe of cinema, and thus the story has a sense of condensation and the characters of the Boleyn girls become caricatures. However, despite this simplification of a complex tale and even more complicated characters, Portman’s performance stands out as she artfully portrays the desperation of Anne Boleyn and the limitations of women’s power in this context. Portman moves from conniving ***** to broken woman in the course of the film, and although she seems to simply get what she deserves, Portman does manage to make the viewer sympathise with her plight and feel her anxiety while awaiting her execution. Eric Bana as King Henry also gives an exceptional performance with very few lines and many intense facial expressions that wonderfully demonstrate the spoiled nature of a King who is permitted any indulgence.

Like any period film, the costuming and sets often almost outshine the actors, and The Other Boleyn Girl offers gorgeous frame after frame. Although this is not a subtle film, the way in which it operates as a morality tale makes it somewhat suitable to the time period in which it is set.

The film suggests that Mary’s survival, when the Boleyn’s fall from the King’s favour, is achieved because of her inherent ‘goodness’ and that Anne’s demise is a direct result of her selfishness and cruelty towards her good sister. The film also suggests these women create their own reality in the way that Henry is a gentle lover to the sweet Mary, but a brutal rapist to the vicious Anne. This kind of simplicity suggests the women were more in control of their lives than the era would have allowed, and in many ways puts Henry in the position of a puppet whose strings are pulled by the manipulative women around him.

Although Henry’s lust is shown as his major character flaw, the way the women around him inflame his passion is portrayed as the motivation in his infamous six marriages. Eric Bana, while confined to a role that suggests Henry was at the mercy of his court and his admirers, does at least manage to offer a much more complicated performance than the script initially suggests. Bana’s King Henry is childish and reactive, and drunk with power, unable to ever feel satisfied with anything, yet increasingly aware of how he is being manipulated by those around him.

overshadowed by the idea that bad things only happen to bad people (like Anne) and good people (like Mary) will always be shown mercy. History, like life, tends to be a lot more unpredictable, yet this kind of moralising is to be expected when history is simplified into the conventions of drama.