The Other Boleyn Girl (2003 BBC Version) (2003)

King Henry VIII and his passions are so gripping, viewers still can’t get enough of them nearly five centuries later. Consider the riveting British drama The Other Boleyn Girl, witty, tragic, and as full of real emotions as, well, Jane Austen’s novels. The BBC film, based on the novel by Philippa Gregory (and remade into a much glossier Hollywood version in 2008), allows the viewer to sympathize with the plight of women in 16th-century England, while being slightly revolted by the whole sticky mess.

Imagine two sisters whose father and entire family encourage them to debase themselves to curry favor with the handsome young King Henry (Jared Harris, Ocean’s Twelve, To the Ends of the Earth). Mary Boleyn, played with winsome gravity by Natascha McElhone (Californication), is the first sister to catch the eye of the king, grown weary of his wife, Queen Katherine (Yolanda Vazquez, Notting Hill). “Use your wiles!” insists Mary’s father, Sir Thomas Boleyn (noted British theater actor Jack Shepherd), as the appalled, newly married young woman tries to resist. Mary ultimately carries on an affair with the king and bears him an illegitimate son–but sister Anne sees her own opening as the king becomes restless again.

The film takes a decidedly modern approach to this period drama, by having the sisters occasionally speak directly to the camera, confessing their deepest desires (since clearly their own family couldn’t care less). The men around them are desperate to advance their standing in the court and don’t hesitate to push the young sisters into moral harm’s way to get what they want. Things take a dangerous turn when Anne, played by the revelatory Jodhi May (Defiance), musters up ambition of her own to be not only a royal plaything but queen herself. The lack of a male heir, however, and Anne’s own pride begin to spell her downfall, as her family distances themselves (“don’t let that girl sink us all alongside her!” her horrified, and somewhat horrifying, father declares). It’s the film’s great achievement that though we know (most of) the end of the tale, we remain riveted to the very end. –A.T. Hurley

Product Description

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 older sister, Anne. Inspired by Philippa Gregory’s best selling novel, this film is about great families jockeying for position and using their daughters as pawns in a deadly game. Set during one of the most notorious periods in British regal history, it is a powerful narrative and at its heart is the relationship between two rivals – the Boleyn sisters.

Here is the high acclaimed movie The Other Boleyn Girl starring many famous actors and actresses, released in 2008.

The Other Boleyn Girl (2008)

A tale of two sisters competing for the same king, The Other Boleyn Girl uses historical facts as window dressing for this work of fiction that is entertaining, if not wholly believable. Anne Boleyn (Natalie Portman) is the doe-eyed vixen ordered by her power-hungry uncle to bewitch King Henry VIII (Eric Bana).

Her shy sister Mary (Scarlett Johansson) has always been in Anne’s shadow; Anne is prettier, more accomplished, and desired by many men. So when the King picks Mary–the “other Boleyn girl”–as his mistress, Anne turns on her sister and schemes to become not only the King’s consort, but his new queen.

With a pair of American actresses in the lead roles and an Aussie portraying their hunky object of desire, the English accents are all over the place in this period piece with a modern feel. Though the Boleyn girls’ mother points out that her “daughters are being traded like cattle for the advancement of men,” it is Anne who ultimately throws her slight weight around to bully Henry into doing her bidding. When he begs her to give herself to him, Anne–wearing a Carrie Bradshaw-esque “B” pendant on her neck–counters, “Make me your Queen.”

Is the audience really supposed to believe that Henry the VIII–the most powerful man in the land–would divorce Catherine of Aragon, separate from the Catholic church, and put England in upheaval simply because Anne refused to sleep with him until he jumped through all her hoops? “I have torn this country apart for you,” he hisses at her before finally getting his way.

Based on Philippa Gregory’s bestselling novel of the same name, The Other Boleyn Girl features an attractive cast and a familiar plot with some icky twists. Kieran McGuigan’s cinematography is breathtaking and is as crucial to setting the film’s tone as the dialogue. Actually, it fares better: Lines such as “Well? Did he have you?!” sound almost comical. But the sweeping shots of Henry’s kingdom and the carefully framed close-ups of Portman and Johansson are breathtaking in their beauty and say what words simply cannot. –Jae-Ha Kim

The Cast of The Other Boleyn Girl

Natalie Portman (Anne Boleyn)

Scarlett Johansson (Mary Boleyn)

Eric Bana (Henry Tudor)	Jim Sturgess (George Boleyn)	Kristin Scott Thomas (Lady Elizabeth Boleyn)

Beyond The Other Boleyn Girl

Paperback Book

On Blu-ray

The Soundtrack

Stills from The Other Boleyn Girl (click for larger image)

Movie Description

Based on the best-selling novel, The Other Boleyn Girl is a captivating tale of intrigue, romance and betrayal starring Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson, and Eric Bana. Two sisters, Anne (Portman) and Mary (Johansson), are driven by their ambitious family to seduce the king of England (Bana) in order to advance their position in court. What starts as an opportunity for the girls to increase their family fortune becomes a deadly rivalry to capture the heart of a king to stay alive.