The Other Boleyn Girlby Phillipa Gregory has long been on my favorite book list. It was my introduction to Tudor historical fiction, of which I now have a great love. Here is a mini-review I wrote on Shelfari some time ago:
Everyone knows, somewhat, the story of Anne Boleyn, Queen of England and mother of Queen Elizabeth I. This book tells the story from the viewpoint of her sister Mary, herself a mistress of King Henry VIII before he married Anne, and mother to 2 of his children. I could barely put this book down, so enthralling is this story of family rivalry and betrayal…and the descriptions of the King’s lavish court are fascinating and thrilling…I couldn’t put it down.
A few weeks ago, the same night my phone took it’s swim, I broke my long honoured tradition of not seeing movie versions of books I have loved, and saw the film.
Eh.
The costumes, I will say, were beautiful.
As for the rest of the movie. Eh. The two leads, Scarlett Johansson (Mary) and Natalie Portman (Anne) looked good, and did well enough with what they were given. Henry (Eric Bana) was a looker as well. Beyond that,t he movie was just okay. I suppose if I had not read the book I may have liked it more. Maybe. But I did read the book, so I cannot review it without compare.
I found the characters in the movie very poorly developed and one dimensional. Mary was the good girl, Anne was the bad girl, Henry was a selfish child, end of story. I think I would have felt this way book or not.
As for the plot, well, there was just so much missing. Mary’s years long affair with Henry was shown to have lasted mere weeks. Anne’s 6 year long seduction, months. Historical events of the era were glossed over. If I had not read the book, I may not have known how much was missing, and may have enjoyed the plot much more. As it was, all I kept thinking was “that’s it?”.
This is not to say I did not enjoy the movie. As stated, the costumes were absolutely gorgeous and they alone were enough to keep my attention.
Beyond the costumes, the characters and plot, in spite of their shortfalls, were still enough to keep my interest. Of course, since I see a cinema movie about twice a year, that does not take much.
I guess it was mostly a disappointment cause the book was such a rich epical story, and the movie was just…well…a beginning, middle and end. I think it would be much better suited to a mini-series, or at the least one of those 4 hour films everyone complains about. 2 hours simply could noto do the book justice.
In closing: If you have not read the book, read it. If you really don’t want to, try the movie, you may like it.
If you’ve read the book skip the movie and read The Boleyn Inheritance next.
